Babylon 5 SI
by heavyneos
Summary: An OC self insert, there is some swearing but no F-bombs.
1. Chapter 1

(I don't own Babylon 5 JMS dose)

It had been a long game and well fought but it was down to the final few minutes an there scrum half had dropped the ball at their own twenty two, Dan had absolutely decimate the poor bugger when he had hit him but he went and didn't get back up.

I felt a sudden wave of dread I was the only one on the field that had any experience in the number two slot on the front row, our substitute Morgan couldn't make it as he had broken his leg a month ago, I hated playing hooker my neck would ache for days, so reluctantly I moved forward from the second row into a position I only played twice before.

I wrapped my arms around Dai and Rod heavyset twins and my friends for six years I felt Thomas and Gavin's heads hat my hips and the slight judder as Dylan and Morgan locked into the flanks Mike would be the last to lock in we waited for the referee, I didn't know the man personally but he had been pretty neutral during the whole game.

He walked between the Athletic and our packs making sure we were the correct distance apart and I couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of unease

"Crouch!" he shouted and the feeling increased as we bent down

"Touch!" I could see Dai and Rod touch there opposite numbers on the shoulder quickly; the world began to bleed away from my vision as the adrenalin kicked into over drive and all I could here was my heart beat and my own breath

"Pause!" It came as a distant mumble

"Engage" we came together in an almighty clash of flesh and bone it held for what felt like a minute before I felt that we were going straight down and from the angle I knew this would hurt, I was taller than my stocky opposite number and I knew my head would hit first, I watched the muddy earth come at me and like a train wreck I couldn't look away as I hit, I felt a sudden searing brining in my neck then nothing.

(?)

I awoke what felt like an hour latter surrounded by white emptiness.

"Hello" I called only for it to echo right back at me, "wonderful" I mumbled

"Isn't it just" I jumped surprise and fear then whirled around to find a very familiar face

"John, John de Lancie?"

"Yes and no my fine simian friend"

"What"

"Oh I really had hoped that your micro brain could put it together"

I felt a hot shot of rage run through my system and made to move at him before I realised just who it was I was dealing with

"Ah you seem to have realised your good fortune" he smiled a vile and repugnant grin

"The good fortune of a dream?" his smile disappeared

"Dreams are flights of fancy for the subconscious" he said poking me in the just hard enough to sting "and I assure you my fine Neanderthal I am not" I rubbed my chest where he had poked me

"If this isn't a dream then its sum kind of drug induced trip" I was convinced after all I have seen documentaries on this kind of thing before a chemical reaction from the morphine or whatever anaesthetic they had used on me "obviously I am on my way to a hospital and they needed to drug me for the trip"

"Such a convincing argument my late friend"

"What am I late for?" that caused him to chuckle riley

"Allow me to put it into perspective for you" he transformed instantly into a young John Cleese in a long rain coat, a desk materialised in front of me and he was carrying a bird cage with a doll inside it as he got closer to the desk I saw that the doll was me, a bell seemed to echo around me not a heavy church bell but a light entrance bell used in certain old school shops.

"Hello I wish to register a complaint"

'Oh no' I thought

"Hello miss" he smiled as he looked at me and a voice came from behind the desk

"What do you mean by miss" it was a young Michel Palin

"I'm sorry I have a cold" his smile seemed to twist somehow as he continued "I wish to register a complaint"

"Sorry were closed for lunch"

"Never mind that my lad I wish to complain about this human I bought from this very boutique not half an hour ago"

"Oh yeas the European Welsh what wrong with him"

"I'll tell you what's wrong with him my lad he's dead" I winced at this now macabre seen "that's what's wrong with him"

"No, no he's just asleep" I winced again

"Look my lad I know a dead human when I see one and I'm looking at one right now"

"No, no it's just in a drug induced trip" he smiled at me "remarkable breed the European Welsh beautiful plumage"

"The plumage don't enter into it my lad its stone dead"

"No, no he is resting"

"oh alright then if he is resting I shall just wake him up then" he brought the doll and the cage up to his face "Hello" he shouted "wake up I have a nice all day breakfast waiting for you if you wake up" the Palin pushed the cage

"See he moved"

"No he didn't you pushed him"

"I did not"

"Yes you did" he grabbed the doll from the cage and brought it up to his mouth "Hello" he shouted again "Hello" he then began bashing the doll against the desk and with each impact I twitched and winced "now that's what I call a dead human"

"No, no its stuned" he said "you stuned him"

"look my lad I have had just about enough of this" he said as the Palin, the desk, the cage and the doll vanished, he was now looking directly at me "you have passed on, you are a late human"

"N, no" I am fine this is just a weird trip from the pain medication that is all

"You are no more, you have ceased to be, and you have expired to meet your maker" he indicated to himself "you are a late human, you're a stiff, bereft of life you rest in peace, your are pushing up the daisies, you have ran down the curtain and joined the choir eternal, you are an ex human"

I had sunk to my knees and wept.

"Some people you have to tell them till your blue in the face."

I couldn't process what I had been told, I understood it but I couldn't seem to truly understand that I was dead I am here I can feel I can comprehend somewhat.

"But all is not lost to you my little friend"

"W, what?"

"I have need of you my simple friend" he smiled at me "you see even I with my limitless power must obey certain laws" he seemed very disgruntled at the thought "but as with every law there are loop holes that can be exploited"

"What are you talking about?"

"I shall explain it simply I have need of an agent of a sorts" he huffed indignantly "you are to be that agent"

"Why me"

"Why not I hate it when things go to waste and your death would be so"

"That is about as clear as mud"

"Ok let me explain it to you" he said as if talking two a three year old "you are not special, and you are not the only one, think of this universe like a tool shop"

"A tool shop"

"Yes you don't use a screw driver to hammer in a nail do you?"

"No"

"No, now where was I" he paused for a second "ah yes, you are just a tool for a specific job nothing special, we often take individuals after they die in this world when we need a job doing" he said tapping his lower lip "you see we cannot interfere directly that is the law that is why we each have tools or agents to do that for us"

"Why"

"For sport of course"

"Really?"

"Really every time we insert an agent it splinters the universe one continues on as if nothing happened the other is changed for better or worse" he smiled "we make bets and see whether or not the universe in play is better off in the long run"

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"Because it will give you a chance to fulfil one of your wildest dreams and pissoff some authoritarian ass holes in the process"

"Which ones?"

"Understanding is a three-edged sword"

"Oooooooooooohh" I smiled I knew who he meant from that one statement alone "very well I accept" he smiled at me "but" the smile dropped "I wish for three things if I'm going to do this"

"Very well ask away"

"I want the complete knowledge of all technology from the star trek universe from the powers in the dominion war, and a complete understanding of how to create and apply the knowledge with in the universe I am going to"

"No that is too much"

"Klingon, Cardassian, dominion and Romulan"

"No still too much"

"Klingon, Cardassian from the Dominion war and Kirk federation tech up to and including his death"

"Done" he smiled and snapped his fingers "and third?

"Before I want to know if I am being inserted or born into this new universe"

"Both, you will be inserted and fused with your counterpart when he reaches the appropriate age your souls will fuse and you will be one"

"Very well my final wish is to be born into an influential family that way I can get things started earlier"

The smile he had seemed to split his face for a moment and I could only imagine what the devious bugger was thinking but I knew I wasn't going to like it, he snapped his fingers and once again I was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

(I don't own Babylon 5 JMS dose)

27/04/2232

David Clark woke with a start and a thunderous hangover that didn't improve when he rolled off his bed and hit the floor face first with a dull heavy thud; he moved slowly over to his bathroom eyes only open a sliver as the light burned his eyes and the floor refused to cooperate with him as it oscillated and jostled like there was an earthquake going on, but from what he could see nothing in the room was moving so he dismissed it as the cursed drink filtered through his system.

The bathroom was dark as he entered and it took him a few try's to locate the light switch and turn it on, he cursed as he knew it was moving along the wall just to taunt him before he finally managed to intercept the damnable thing and he cursed even louder as the bright light reflected back at him with all the force of a Tsar bomb.

Covering his eyes with his hands he slipped on the slick tiled floor with a heavy meaty thud as naked flesh met cold tile, it was mornings like this that convinced David that there in fact was a god and he was an asshole, deciding to rest his forearm over his eyes he waited and to consider his next move and his bloody revenge on John for convincing him to celebrate his last few days as a student and the end of the war all at the same time, slowly and more carefully he tried to get up only to slip again and end up on his face, David mumbled obscenities that would make even the most hardy and salty sailors blush.

Sliding over to the bath he used it as leverage and got back to his feet planting his feet securely for him to stand he waited a few shaky moments to recover his equilibrium before turning around and heading for the sink turning the cold water tap he splashed himself several times in the face hoping the water would wash away the terrible hangover he was experiencing, but once again the dick in the sky was being uncooperative.

He looked up into the mirror and wished he hadn't the blurry image of his face was both familiar and foreign to him

"Who are you" he murmured but immediately regretted it as the echo attached him as harshly as the most savage of artillery barrages, he clutched his head hoping in some way to contain or stop the pain but it was relentless but as it died down he felt another sharp stab of pain, but this time it was localised at the back of his head, but instead of dying back it increased exponentially, then everything went suddenly everything went dark.

"It's time" said a voice in the dark then pain lots and lots of pain.

()

"David" called an unfamiliar feminine voice "David can you hear me?" He opened his eyes and saw a mess of blurry colour that slowly began to focus before a light was shined into both of his eyes temporarily blinding him for a second, he saw a very pretty woman in a luminous green jump suit with black boots an orange vest and purple latex gloves, David also felt that someone had dressed him somewhat he could feel a pair of underpants and shorts on his lower body.

"Yeah" it came out with great difficulty like something or someone was holding his mouth shut he had never felt so absolutely exhausted in all his life he just wanted to sleep

"No, no, no" she spoke urgently and rapidly "you're not allowed to sleep just yet David do you remember what happened?"

"Slipped?"

"That's right you slipped" she said looking over to her left she indicated with one hand pointing and moving her arm to someone he couldn't see

"Yeah"

"Do you know where you are right now?" she asked, David looked around with all his effort it looked like his bathroom and it smelled like his bathroom he was pretty sure he was still in his bathroom.

"Bathroom"

"That's right" she looked away to again "you slipped and hit your head" she looked back at her left "just grab his legs" she then looked at him again "we're just going to move you onto the gurney ok"

"K"

"On three ok" she said as she grabbed on to him "one, two, three" he felt himself get lifted and deposited on a bed to his left, David looked up at the woman again "we need to get you to the Hospital to run a few tests ok" David nodded or tried to but something was defiantly holding his neck in lace "try not to nod until after the scan"

"Ok"

He saw her grab on to the handles of the gurney

"Lift on three ok" she said "one, two, three" David felt the gurney lift and the legs drop down with a click before they began to wheel him out of his room.

David heard the muffled sobbing coming from his left, he look to find his mother's pail, worried and tear stained face

"He is alright Mrs Clark" came a male voice from his feet "where just taking him to the hospital for some checks and a brain scan to make sure he hasn't done any permanent damage"

"His father and uncle are on the way"

"Were taking him to the St. Florentina clinic" he said as they passed her David could hear the familiar chime of a communications panel being activated, as they approached the grand marble staircase of the mansion we stopped, then a bell like chirp came from around David and the journey continued, they were outside before David knew what was happening and inside the ambulance before his eyes could adjust to the light, and they were gone on their way to the Hospital.

(Time skip)

David was so very tired they had spent the last two hours scanning him and asking the most stupid questions he knew he was fine he just needed sleep then everything would be ok, as he thought this he began to feel relaxed again and slowly he began to drift away.


	3. Chapter 3

(I don't own Babylon 5 JMS dose)

(?)

David felt himself floating in nothing he couldn't see or feel anything but the sensation of weightlessness, it reminded him of the time his father and uncle had taken his cousin and himself to Mars for the day it was like floating in water but without the water and it was very, very relaxing.

But just as David was feeling the most relaxed he had ever been he saw a bright white light and felt nothing but pain, pain the likes of which he had never experienced before it started out like a narrow stabbing pain as if someone was stabbing him with a pin at the back of his brain, that suddenly and agonisingly expanded to cover his whole brain, then like a volcano it erupted and memories and experiences that weren't his began to bore into his brain and just as suddenly as it bean it dissipated leaving David confused and somehow jubilant.

Then before he could properly acclimatize he felt the boring again like a slow drilling in his temples and more information, information that seemed impossible schematics and blue prints for machines that defied science schematics for weapons, medications, computer systems, propulsion systems and gravity that defied all that he had learned at school and with them followed knowledge of how to adapt the technology and build it with his current understanding of technology all seemed within his reach.

He knew how to change the earth alliance for the better as he watched over memories of a life he never lived, he watched as tyrants and sycophant's tool control and lead earth down the same dark path of Nazi Germany, he watched the fall of Narn, the damnation of the Centari and the future destruction that lead earth back to the middle ages as any form of science was shunned and dammed as the folly of humans. He watched and weeps as his own uncle would lead the charge down that dark path gone was the kind man that had helped him with his homework, gone was the quiet hardworking activist for equal rights for the colonies and gone was the light of constant joy in his eyes.

It is one thing to know about Hitler, but it is another to know him, be related to him and watch powerless as he descends into the fire knowing that you are unable to help or even speak out to help him, it was all too much for David and he passed out again only to be greeted this time with books and information on the dark side of Psycorp and the telepath war and David knew that he had only three options,

Do nothing and watch the world burn, he discarded that as soon as he thought of it because he knew that it just wasn't right, the amount of people killed or would be killed was unfathomable to him and to just let that happen would make him just as guilty as those firing the weapons.

Work within the system and change the Alliance from within hoping that the corruption within the government wouldn't affect him, and warp his mind to follow the dark path like it would his uncle.

Destroy the Earth Alliance and rebuild something better in its place, something like that federation of planets he had learned about or something similar a united states in space with each world having equal rights and representation within the government.

David knew that he no longer had the luxury of picking his own path, before this he had the ambition of joining the Earth Force fleet arm and being a captain, commanding his own ship and defending the alliance, but now, now he may have to destroy the Alliance if he cannot save it, something that just a few hours ago would be as aberrant to him as the act of flaying. But looking over his life threw his now opened eyes it became as clear as crystal, the Earth Alliance had started off well meaning and with good intentions but over time it had become as corrupted and as broken as any third world dictatorship, but the EA at least knew how to hide it well.

David nodded to himself in sudden and dreadful understanding, the dream that was the Earth Alliance is dead or at the very least too far down the path to change without a sudden and massive shock to the system, without that shock humanity was one rabble rousers shout away from total anarchy, it was more apparent in the colonies and especially on Mars where the population was being held together by the chains of oppressive industrialists and a week ineffective government.

But deep in his heart David knew that Humanity as it is now drew unnerving parallels with Imperial Russia before the fall all it would take is either one big or a series of small mistakes and poof it would be gone.

"It begins" came a familiar yet far away voice and David began to fall like someone turned the gravity on all of a sudden, and as he fell he could hear distant voices, they started as mumbles but he could still make them out

"Mr Clark?" one said "Call Code Blue he's not breathing" David could feel a tapping on his chest, as he fell he could make them out more clearly

"Line up the Crash Cart quickly" he heard a distinctly male voice "I've got the pads you help ventilate" then he felt something cold on his chest right over his heart "Ventilation one every ten" as the voice ended he could feel heavy pumping on his chest then a kind of whirring like a camera flash winding up "clear" a pain like ripped through his chest like a firestorm then there was a stinging in his arm and with a gasp of breath he was back in the world.

"Mr Clark" came a voice on David's left as his eyes began to focus and the pain in his head returned "Mr Clark" David turned slightly his eyes focusing a large moustached African man "you had us worried there mister Clark" the man seemed to pick up on David's confusion "you stopped breathing for a few minutes and your heart stopped" he smiled at the "we had to shock you and give you a shot of Adrenalin to get you up" he smiled almost soothingly "were keeping you here for observation just to be sure your alright you should be able to go home in a few days if nothing crops up again" he placed a soothing hand on David's shoulder "get some rest Mr Clark you will be up and about in no time".


	4. Chapter 4

(I don't own Babylon 5 JMS dose)

(St Florentina Hospital, California, American State)

The three days David was kept under observation allowed David allot of time to think, he had considered many things and drawn up many plots but thinking was one thing action was another and as he analysed and recalculated plans within plans, but it all came back to his options but he wasn't ready to make the choice.

Instead he concentrated on the technological knowledge he had gained and how to apply the technology to his world, he knew of several companies that were on their verge of insolvency in the fields he needed, he also knew that in several aces the Earth Alliance was more advanced than the Ferengi and the Packled which was respectable but not fantastic for an interstellar power of their size, and going from the memories he had of the rest of the powers in this sector of the Galaxy it was sad to say that they weren't all that powerful ether.

It amazed David that there wasn't more innovation within the local powers, only the Markeb had shields, only the Centari and the Vree had matter anti-matter technology and if you added the Brakiri to the list you would have all the know races that had gravity on their ships, even the Minbari as David had discovered threw his new memories where subject to this same stagnation.

It was a sorry state that David found the galaxy in and he had to wonder how much of it was from Vorlon interference, what else they had done to the so called younger races, had they hamstrung them and if so it could be undone.

"Mr Clark" the voice was a deep rumbling tenor that David knew all too well

"Doctor M'Butu" David nodded in greeting, the doctor was a good man and had a very dry humour that David connected with, he was also very frank and would tell you to you face what was wrong without pulling any punches

"How are you feeling today" he said as he grabbed the medical pad and began to examine the documentation, he nodded to himself before pulling out a stylus and signing, he smiled as he placed the pad back in its slot

"I am good, feeling allot better"

"That's good" he smiled "well I'll let you have your breakfast then you can sign you discharge papers and be out of here as soon as you parents get here with your clothes"

"Wonderful" David smiled "no offence doc but after three days of being poked and prodded I'm looking forward to it"

"That's fine Mr Cark" he chuckled "I can sympathise" he said before turning to leave "well Mr Clark I hope we don't meet each other under the same circumstances again for a long time" he said as he presented his hand, David Shook it firmly as he had been taught

"I hope so too doctor" David said as the Doctor made his way out of the room.

The breakfast wasn't anything to write home about; the scrambled egg had very little taste the bacon was mostly gristle, the sausages where overly chewy and the orange juice had no pulp in it, but it did the job of filling David up, at about 12:30 David's parents arrived with his uncle and his clothes.

"David are you ready to go" it was David's mother, she was a tall thin woman who's looks didn't fade with time, she had mousy blond hair and wore a pink jumper with white trousers and black flat shoes, she always smelt like lemons not an overpowering smell but you could pick up on it if you were hugging, she had been to see David every day since the accident.

With her was David's father he was a tall broad balding man, he had a black hair and blue eyes he wore a dark tailored suit and a blood red tie and black highly polished shoes, he smelled of old spice, in his left hand was a small rucksack that looked stuffed full.

"As soon as I'm dressed" said David as his father passed him the rucksack

"Well hurry up kiddo" he said with a small smile, though you couldn't see it at first glance if you looked into David's fathers eyes you could visibly see the relief in his eyes.

"Thanks dad" David smiled as he grabbed the rucksack and headed to the bath room to change.

His parents had brought his favourite t-shirt, it was a classic black with an iron cross emblem on the front with one on each shoulder, they brought his blue acid washed jeans and his black classic inspired converse sneakers, they also remembered his black wide cuff leather wrist watch and his green and black letterman jacket.

After he was dressed David smiled at last he was comfortable again and his ass wasn't on display to the world which was always a plus in his or any other book. David moved to leave but stopped just short of the door as he caught sight of himself in the mirror, the face that greeted him there was his but at the same time wasn't, he was just as tall as he remembered being but for some reason he thought he had grown allot thinner and he remembered his hair being a lighter brown that what he saw and he was sure his eyes were blue like the virgin sea not green as emeralds his face shape was wrong too his jaw wasn't as square and he didn't have a cleft, he stared at the mirror as if trying to decipher the secret to life the universe and everything before a hard loud knocking.

"David, are you alright" it was his mother he could hear the concern in her voice, he turned his head slightly towards the door his eyes locked still on the mirror

"Yeah, I'm...I'm fine"

"Well come on son" shouted his father "one would think that you wanted to stay" he joked David could hear the chuckle as he finished talking, David took a few more seconds to reacquaint himself with his face before he headed to the door.

The journey home went quickly though it could just have been that David was distracted he had a decision to make, a decision that could and would change allot of things with in the Alliance, he knew how to start but the changes but he now he had to decide the means.


	5. Chapter 5

(I don't own Babylon 5 or any characters within the show, also please forgive any grammar and spelling errors I am Dyslexic and even with spell checker it's difficult for me to see them)

02/05/2232

David stood staring at the closed oak doors to his father's study he had spent his first day home considering what technology to start with, he was torn between two but he had finally come to a decision, now all he needed to do was convince his father to finance him this would probably be the most difficult part of his plan but he needed to do it he only had thirteen years before the Earth Minbari war, which wasn't a long time to change things.

David took a deep calming breath; he squared his shoulders and knocked twice on the hard wood door

"Enter" shouted a muffled voice a few seconds later; David took another breath to steel himself before entering.

The door creaked open the door hinges protesting the weight of the wood, as he did so his nose and eyes were assaulted by thick smog of cigar smoke, his father smoke exclusively with in his study and he only smoked Cuban cigars. David didn't have a single memory where his father didn't have at least one cigar in his suit breast pocket behind the handkerchief.

The room itself was a typical study that you would find in older English manor houses, the desk behind witch his father sat was a dark oak with gothic, each leg was carved to look like a lions paw. The desk was sat in front of the window looking back into the office and with the light streaming in casting an intimidating shadow across the bear oak floor and the Persian rug.

"Father?" said David as he peeked his head through the door

"Yes David what can I do for you" he said looking up from his computer panel

"Do you have some time for me?"

"Always son" he smiled "come on in" he pressed the computer screen once and the distinctive beep of stand by sounded, David knew that he needed to impress his father enough for him to trust him with the funds he needed, with design blueprints in hand he made his way into the study and to his father's desk.

Taking a deep calming breath David opened the large design sheet on his father's desk; his father immediately seeing that this would be a proposal session mentally put his business hat on and detached himself as best he could to be objective to his son's proposal, the blueprints that he was presented with were amazingly detailed and the calculations were far, far above his head so much so that he wasn't sure what his son was presenting.

Seeing his father's confusion and hoping to elevate it David began his proposal

"As you know father since the war Earth force has been offering a prise for the first person to create a means of artificial gravity for our ships" David waited for his father to nod before continuing "this is my answer to that challenge"

"David are you telling me this is a blueprint for artificial gravity"

"Yes"

"You do know that the best minds in the alliance are tackling this problem as we speak"

"Yes"

"Then what makes your proposal anymore viable that there's"

"Two things" David said as he raised two fingers "one the current theory for artificial gravity is revolving round rotating sections or a form of gravitational propulsion, the first one is impractical because the rotation will limit the maneuverability of the vessel and the rotating section would make too obvious a target for anyone to ignore, the second is so far out of our current level of technology it might as well be science fiction"

"That's first what the second?"

"Second my answer is more compartmentalised which fits the current trend for Earth Force vessels, as you can see for my design I have a gravity plating system, each plate is interlocked with another each creating the equivalent gravity of earth standard"

It was a shaky three hours later that David emerged pail sweaty but with a look of shocked happiness on his face, he had done it he had made his first step closer to his goal; he knew how to impress upon his farther the importance and the potential profit in the technology he was selling, his father had with David's suggestion bought controlling stock three of the nine companies David wanted and had began to send out feelers for the other six at least three were private companies that his father's lawyers were in the presses of contacting the owners for a proposed buyout.

His father had agreed to let David use an old decommissioned Olympus class corvette that had been damaged during the Dilgar instead of a complete refit the navy had instead decommissioned her and replaced her with a Nova dreadnought. It was a few weeks later that the Corvette had been moved from Berk and Blares breakers yard a subcontracted company of the Clark Corporation and the preeminent ship breakers of the earth alliance military, delivery of the ship had been difficult but not impossible the purchasing of it had sent up a red flag for the military who had almost scuppered the whole project until they found out the point of the project.

(23/05/2232)

David was not amused he had expected to be hip deep in the guts of an Olympus class corvette by now, using it as a test bed for the technology he had planned to introduce to the alliance not sitting in an uncomfortable suit outside Earth force command waiting for the joint chiefs of staff to see him, things had been going so well before but somehow someone had leaked information and he had Earth Force Naval Intelligence knocking at his door.

Earth Force Navy HQ operated outside of Switzerland in Berlin Germany, more specifically the city palace it was an opulent building rebuilt after the Second World War in imperial Prussian style.

The white door with golden accents swings open and a short curvaceous woman steps out, she looks around twenty to twenty five years old her blue black hair was tied up in a bun, the light made her dark skin glow alluringly, the deep navy blue uniform seemed to enhance her natural beauty the dark tan leather and poppy red piping seemed to stand out the most to him, her high cheekbones and soft rounded chin seemed to mesmerise him but it was her eyes that held him her emerald green eyes that seemed to sparkle

"David Clark" she asked her voice was light but commanding strange given her years

"Y...yes" he stammered she rolled her eyes, she seemed used to this kind of attention

"The joint chiefs will see you now" she said opening the door wider and stepping out of the way

"Right" he brushed past her then waited for her to point to where he was going, she indicated to a door father down the corridor

"Its the final door at the end of this corridor knock once" she said "and only once then wait for them to open the door" David nodded as she turned around, he turned and saw her sit at a desk behind she then shuffled some papers, David turned back and made his way to the door his footsteps echoing like the boom of cannons.

It seemed a backwards system to him but he wasn't in the navy or any other military branch, as he reached the end he knocked once waiting, the door clicked and swung open a few moments later, the porter or butler maybe who opened the door was allot less attractive he was a large scarred man bald gruff looking and entirely displeased to see David, he stepped out of the way enough for David to enter the opulent room. The room was bone white with green accents the windows had deep blood red curtains and between each window was a masterpiece of oil paint each depicting a Prussian king or queen, the flooring was wooden and almost looked like polished gold shining beneath six medium sized crystal chandlers and one large one.

In front of David as he entered was a large wooden table covered with a deep red velvet cloth, behind it was a large painting of Fredrick the Great sitting on a white charger sword held high almost as if he was about to start a cavalierly charge against his hated enemies, beneath that was a golden framed chair with deep red backing and seat cushions emblazoned on the chair was the Imperial Prussian eagle all in gold.

Sitting behind the table where five people all in Earth Force uniforms but in different colours for each different branch, two men and one woman where in the blue and poppy red of Earth Force Navy, General Michel Abramov was the first man David's research had indicated that he was quite progressive in navel terms but in reality he was a deep conservative mostly and a proud member of the Russian Consortium, General Jean Paul Hisson was a staunch traditionalist conservative and an over starched arrogant Frenchman very proud of the fourth republic, General Afia Akpabio of the African bloc made up the third of the navy representation her reputation was fierce she was a lion of a woman not afraid to tell you when you F'ed no matter who you where. The final two men of the five person panel were in the khaki green and duck egg blue representing the Earth Force Marine Corps, the First was a black man of a fierce and no nonsense General from the American State Richard Franklin and finally from the united kingdom General Montgomery Abrahams. Each one had enough meddles and ribbons on their chests to put a pirate treasure to shame the chandler light gave each meddle a distinct sheen.

In front of the table was a plain back swivel chair the kind of chair that wouldn't be out of place in an office environment, it was placed about three feet from the desk as isolated an island in the ocean. He walked taking care to keep his eyes from focusing solely on the people in front of him, this was a tactic to unsettle him and give them an advantage it seemed that even before he had spoken to them negotiations had begun, he welcomed the echo of his steps as they rumbled around the room like thunder it gave himself something to concentrate on besides his beating heart and his own breath. They were watching every step he took as he made his way to the chair, measuring him trying to decipher him like a coded communication as though every step unfolded a new line in the secret that would be his undoing.

The chair creaked slightly as he sat in it; he knew that he needed to appear at ease as though this whole thing was just a slight annoyance, he needed to put forth an air of a relaxed gentlemen.

"Good afternoon lady and gentlemen" he nodded to each in turn "I have called you all here to reveal the killer"

"Mr Clark" snapped General Akpabio her voice was sharp clipped and almost melodic "would you please take this seriously" she insisted her voice rolling over the last word like a wave.

"I am afraid that you have me at a disadvantage madam" he said turning to face her and resisting the urge to spin around on the chair "Seeing as now I know you have my name but I don't have any of yours" he said his eyes rolling over the collection of officers he knew who they were but there etiquette was lacking, they should have introduced themselves before he sat down as well as telling what this meeting was about "and I am unimpressed by your manners and your collection of jewellery highly polished as it is"

That caught them of guard a direct attack and a piercing shot to their collective egos.

"If you would give us a moment we shall introduce ourselves" rumbled the voice of General Abramov his thick moscovian accent eating into the Ws like a hungry bear, David smiled inside he had knocked them off their axis and had the advantage.

"I already know who each of you are" said David "but what I don't know is why I am here" he said making himself more comfortable "I bought a decommissioned ship over the table and through official channels, not only that but that ship had been decommissioned for half a decade and was scheduled to be broken apart and recycled within six months" he said scratching the back of his neck "all classified military technology should have been removed and all computer files wiped and then scrambled beyond any means of reconstruction"

"The decommissioning of the Sarajevo was completed with all sensitive equipment removed but that is not why you are here" said General Franklin who was unconsciously choking the life out of his swagger stick

"Then pray tell General Franklin why am I here" David asked raising his arms in question

"We have some concerns over what you intend to do with the ship" General Abrahams ever the English gentlemen spoke in a calming manner that only served to irritate David

"And what business is that of yours?" he was sharper in response than he intended

"We've had an increase in pirate activity with reports that they are using older ex-military vessels" said General Hisson actually making the effort of appearing to read documents in front of him

"Are you accusing me of Piracy?"

"No obviously not but we would like to know what you intend to do with the vessel" said General Akpabio,

"My intention is to use it as a test bed for some new technology I am creating"

"What kind of Technology?" rumbled the Russian General as he folded his hands together in front of him

Ah here we have it someone must have either informed them or they hacked the patent office David thought

"Why don't we stop beating around the bush" David said suddenly catching them again "somehow someone has informed you of recent patent I have made" David adjusted his seating position intent on giving them the full broadside "either you have bought off or have an agent in my father's science divisions or more likely you have a worm program in the patent office computer that picks up certain words like gravity the program them informs your intelligence division that intern informs you" David whipped his nose hiding the nervous itch as he spoke

"Something like that yes" admitted the Frenchman

"Well what do you want to know" as if he didn't already know the answer

"We would like to know the progress of your project" said General Abramov "we are intrigued several of our R&amp;D people don't believe it is possible solution" David's eyebrow twitched slightly

"Really" it was bait he knew but he wasn't above rising to it to end this farce "I am past the drawing board and am in the prototyping phase I have three Gravity Plating panels all operational and ready for extended testing" there was no need to tell them that the plates where only the size of an a4 sheet of paper. they looked to each other trying and failing to conceal their excitement, Gravity was a goal that always seemed out of there reach, no nation would sell it no matter the price offered leaving those that didn't have it lagging behind militarily speaking and scientifically they subbed their noses at so called lesser races that didn't have it.

"Really your already in prototyping" said General Abramov who was the quickest to recover Russian Pragmatism was alive and well in him but David could see the excitement danced behind his eyes

"Yes the ship is for testing the plating in a practical setting though I may have to swop out the fusion reactors for something more powerful" there were a few quirked eyebrows at that

"You have proof your concept works?" General Akpabio asked

"General" he said looking directly at her "not only does my concept work but it works very, very well" he smiled "not only that but I am testing several other technologies as well which is why I required the Olympus class Corvette my designs need final refinement before I can begging mass production"

"Very well but we would like to send an observer along with you during the test of you gravity system" General Akpabio turned to her Russian colleague then back to David "and we would like to set down a contract in the event that you succeed"

David could see what they wanted an exclusive contract with him for his gravity plating leaving David unable to sell to any other race he wanted to sell it to, he couldn't allow that he had plans that he needed to execute and the gravity system would be one of his four pillars.

"Very well but I will select the officer and I will finalize any contract we have personally"

They each gave there assent

"Very well we will send a selection of officer profiles for your approval" said General Akpabio "for the military observer"

"Yes that would be appreciated" David's watch beeped twice drawing the rooms attention David cursed under his breath "I'm sorry but I have to go I have meeting scheduled with Ambassador G'kar and Ambassador Mollari"

"Nothing untoward I hope" asked General Abrahams, he was probing David recognised he was worried that David would sell technology before the Earth Force could get their hands on it.

"No I have arranged colonization rights on the far edge of alliance territory and it close to a disputed border of the Centari Empire and Narn Regime" he said running his hand through his hair before he stood "which is probably why the colonisation license was so cheap" he stopped as he stood "do you have anyone I can borrow for this meeting preferably someone who knows Narn Centari politics and someone they respect" David could see the general "I would see it as a personal favour that I would owe you that may help towards contract negotiation latter on"

With the meeting concluded David moved onto the next meeting with one David Sheridan in his corner which probably cost him more money than he would realise later on and one commercial telepath rated P5 he did not know the headache that he would be exposing himself and his companions to.


	6. Chapter 6

(I don't own Babylon 5 or any characters within the show, also please forgive any grammar and spelling errors I am Dyslexic and even with spell checker it's difficult for me to see them)

The meeting had gone as well as could be expected, the two ambassadors had gone at each other like a divorced couple fighting over the kids but after five hours they both agreed that they would leave that world alone and agreed that David had sole claim to it, better a neutral party hold that world than an enemy, David and his exhausted party had left as quickly as possible after that and he now owed Ambassador Sheridan five cases of brandy and a bottle of scotch and allot more to the telepath who had to be in their minds for the full five hours.

A process he was no way in favour of, just thinking about having one of them rattling around in his mind even if they're only gleaning surface thoughts the tech in his brain could turn even the Pak'ma'ra (a third world nation of carrion eating Cthulhu faced aliens) into a galactic super power, and he didn't want a fascist organisation like the Psi core getting a hold of any of the information in his head the results of which would be unthinkable.

Almost as soon as he returned home he began devising ways of blocking the telepaths from entering his brain but he realised that he was on a very tight timeframe thirteen years is not a very long time to prepare for a war on the intergalactic scale nor was it any great time frame for a technological renaissance, he needed to distil the technology down to the barebones of what would help the Alliance, maybe he could forge a fourth path a path that would hopefully lead to salvation.

In six months the Earth Alliance would be opening their contracts for infantry weaponry and in three he would have finished his final testing phase and a month after that he could begin proper production; but now that he had his own world, his own planet on which to build a future, but for now he had a ship to sort out.

David spent most of the 24th going over the corvette with a fine tooth comb he had built a hand scanner and was detailing the whole ship down to the dents and scratches on the armour he then fed the information into his computer he hadn't finished his Duotronic computer system yet the micro circuitry was proving difficult to program. David knew that he would have to rip out allot of the internal geography of the ship almost all of it in fact, it was built with zero G in mind, there would be thirteen decks by the time he was finished the main bridge would be in the main citadel section and federation modular design, the emergency secondary bridge would be housed deep within the ship's hull and sealed until activated by command access code.

Instead of the open hole and ladder leading to each deck there would now be a turbo lift, one secure one leading to the four decks in the citadel section and another leading from the forth section down to the rest of the ship, the engineering section would have a total overhaul, the two EA fusion reactors where woefully inefficient and didn't produce even a quarter of the power needed so he would need to strip them out and began immediate overhaul, the main propulsion system was in a world laughable, they still used chemical propelled engines and granted they where refined to a ridicules degree but still not fit for purpose the maximum speed of the engines was around three G's which is around one thousand kilometres for a one point four two second burst, the impulse drive he would be implanting in its place by comparison would make that look like a sprint runner verses and F1 race car over a circuit but with that vast increase he would have to install inertia dampeners so that the crew don't become smears on the deck plating.

The two external docking arms where removed making the vessel allot more stream lined, in their place was a central docking arm that was hidden forward between the sensor and communications pylons but beneath the main hanger, the weapon system though powerful for its small size where also not fit for purpose he had resolved to not give the Alliance any weaponry and even limited what he was doing here on the Sarajevo to the same level as the old United Earth Space Probe Agency and even that was pre Enterprise.

The pulse lasers would have to go there range was limited and at extreme range they ran out of power and dissipated traditionally the effective range of the pulse lasers was around eleven thousand two hundred and sixty kilometres give or take, the military plasma pulse cannons where thirty three thousand seven hundred and eighty kilometres effectively tripling the range of the weapons although the effective range of the plasma canons is around twenty five thousand kilometres over that and it starts to dissipate, and at its maximum range of thirty three thousand seven hundred and eighty kilometres the plasma 'bullet' is at about less than quarter of its full power, the recommended engagement range for those weapons is twenty thousand kilometres.

The duel turret rail guns would have to be fixed, though there range was phenomenal the turret itself was slow moving and slow loading, its traverse time from ninety degrees to one hundred and eighty was ninety eight seconds which was simply unacceptable in a combat vessel in that time a ship could be destroyed or if it had to do fast manoeuvring to avoid incoming fire the turret would still be turning, it was a liability at close range a liability that would have to be changed it was simply too good a weapon to simply toss out, maybe a strong look at the systems that controls the weapons traverse time and the loading system.

The missile system he decided to leave alone he refused to give them the technology for Photonic torpedoes maybe they could use the Spatial torpedo it was around a quarter the size of current missile systems and about twice as effective which was a truly sad thing to say.

The next system for an overhaul was the sensor system the active and passive scanners where in a word blind, there range was limited, their ability to differentiate between targets was limited and they could be jammed very easily by certain types of EM radiation, had this design been submitted to Cardassian central command they would have been shot the fool who proposed it, had it been given to imperial research and development the scientist would be stripped of his title and laughed out of the complex, David was simply stunned that a culture could spend so much on weapons but not create a system to aim and target beings with them, it was basic stuff like putting iron sights on a gun and a scope on a sniper rifle, in fact the current weapons target allocation system was so inept that it would be like trying to snipe a man in high winds form a quarter mile away with no scope it was insanity.

But one thing did impress David it was the interceptor grid, he had never seen the like before though most of it had been stripped out of the ship there was enough information left in the computer and shown in his scanners to impress him, how had something like that not been utilised in the Klingon empire or the Cardassian union, he could remember that a similar system had been used during the five years war but was later removed when photon torpedoes speed increased enough to make the system surplus to requirements. But this system was something else it was ingenious and complex, he could probably recreate it and improve it with what he knew of Federation interceptors but it would take time and he wasn't prepared to bumble fudge his way through it.

The ships armour would have to be improved too, for its purpose it was about adequate but polarizing hull plating and with a fusion with the E-web it would help to scatter any energy weapon that impacted it and would increase survivability of any ship by about fifty to seventy percent depending on the type of engagement, David exhaled tiredly before running a hand through his hair, with that long list finished he began to realise the monumental task that was in front of him, but he knew that this was necessary this technology would aid the Alliance maybe even force an armistice with the Minbari.

It was a very tiered but a much more hopeful man that went to sleep that night, his dreams filled with terrible war but a brighter future afterwards.


	7. Chapter 7

(I don't own Babylon 5 or any characters within the show, also please forgive any grammar and spelling errors I am Dyslexic and even with spell checker it's difficult for me to see them)

05/05/2232

(Modified Bulk station)

David had taken proper reseat of the Sarajevo about two days ago and already he was a week behind schedule, the extensive paperwork had to be completed in triplicate, he had taken so many slips to so many different offices and people that he began to suspect that he was the butt of an elaborate joke, and to make matters worse the Hyperion plasma cannons where going to be late by at least a few days and the parts he had ordered manufactured where also behind because of their complexity, David sighed and ran a hand through his hair he checked his list one more time and had the distinct feeling that he had forgotten something important.

David was shocked out of his contemplation by a deep Sothern drawl

"Mr Clarke" the voice belonged to his crew manager Thomas Anderson, he was an older gentleman of European African decent his once black curly hair had turned an ash grey; he had a thick body typical of a retired heavyweight boxer; he wore bright orange coveralls with heavy work boots and a high visibility vest that clashed with the orange of the jump suit. He healed out his soup bowl sized hand out, David shook his hand firmly which seemed to appease the man slightly, the distinct relaxing of the man's shoulders gave it away to David.

"Mr Anderson" David greeted Thomas nodded

"We are ready to shut down the fusion reactors"

"Excellent once the reactors are off line we can begin"

"There is one problem though sir"

"There always is" David pinched the bridge of his nose emotionally preparing himself for another problem

"The Sarajevo's reactors are a type three not the type four that is typical for the manufacturing age of the ship" Thomas continued as David was about to interrupt "it means that we will have some problems removing the rector" Thomas handed David pad "the doors are made for the smaller type four we are going to have to widen the doors before we can remove it"

"How long?"

"About a week"

David knew what engineers were like; if there was one thing he knew for definite it's that they padded their estimates.

"Tell the crews they have five days to make the necessary adjustments"

"Aye sir"

"Have we had delivery of the necessary parts?"

"Yes sir the majority of the heavy equipment has arrived, so as soon as the reactor is out we can commence"

"Very good" he smiled at the man "I am going to be present during the whole process of the rebuild, everything is to be handled on the station or on the ship directly"

"Good to know you will be available if needed sir" he turned to leave before spinning back "I'm sorry I almost forgot the military liaison is here"

"What!" David snapped "I haven't even chosen one yet"

"That's how he introduced himself"

"What the hell is going on where is he"

"In your office sir" David turned and walked towards his office on the station,

The station was a modified bulk mining station, it was built within the body of a large asteroid that had been mined out for Q40, the element that allows hyperspace travel several decades ago, and at the time it was the farthest out post within the solar system for the fledgling Alliance, it had been bought by David's Father years ago as a storage warehouse and was handed over to David as a safe location to tinker with whatever he wished.

The station had began to be modified a week before David had bought the Sarajevo so it could fit the roll it was intended to follow, the modifications added where mainly gravity plating in the main sections including crew quarters meaning that half the station had gravity plating the other half was still at zero g.

The station dock was also the reason David had gone with an Olympus class Corvette, as it was the largest ship that could fit within the station comfortably enough for the crew to work on without major modification needed to the dock or the doors, The ship dock itself was three rings that where attached via a long crew section at the top and bottom, the ship itself was held by twelve arms connected to each ring by connecters that each held four arms two at the top and two at the bottom, the doors to the main dock had been sealed allowing for air to be pumped into the dock eliminating the need for space environmental suits.

The whole station which was almost abandoned for storage a week ago was now a hive of activity as work crews were busily passing David to their assigned tasks. Several of the new crews where marvelling at the gravity and commentating that it was 'about time Earth had it too', and that now Earth was 'entering a new technological age' or other comments that David ignoring as he moved towards his office.

The door to his office was old very old, it was thick and made to be air tight should the office ever suffer explosive decompression it was rusted and thick but as soon as he approached it and was detected by the primitive sensor its heavy hydraulics hissed the door open lifting the door into the upper frame and gone from view.

His office, his sanctuary away from work with that killer view of the asteroid field with Jupiter filling the sky like the moon on a clear night, it was thirty foot square with the thick window behind his desk and chair, a chair that was a comfortable leather that could pivot back and swivel it had a heating system like a car char and a back massager but sitting in it was a man in an Earth Force naval uniform.

David moved towards his desk where this man was intruding in his sanctuary.

"Hello I am your military liaison colonel William Hague" he smiled "and I must say I am already impressed"

"Well I am not" David said looking down on the colonel sitting behind his desk "I haven't had a chance to look over the full list before I hear my military liaison officer is here, sitting behind my bloody desk, explain yourself at once" the man smiled at him

"I volunteered"

"That does not give you leave to intrude without permission"

"Ah" he said getting to his feet and walking around the desk "I apologise for any," he paused spinning his hands in a circular motion "inconvenience this may have caused" he smiled "but once I heard I was in the running for such a prestigious position I decided to cut out the middle man, it helped that you using my first command as the test ship I know the savage better than anyone else, inside out upside down and back to front"

"The savage?" David questioned his left eyebrow raised in a similar fashion a certain Vulcan scientist

"The nick name the Sarajevo earned against the Dilgar" he smiled and seemed to be almost looking through David "the Savage Sarajevo first in the fight and the last out again" he chucked then held out his hand.

David shook the hand firmly still not amused by the man's arrival

"I don't see why you would volunteer, by the time I am done the Sarajevo will be a completely different ship, hell I have to adjust my original plans for the refit, I was planning to rip out the internal geometry and have thirteen decks but I misgauged the size of the vessels internal scale after scanning it again a few days ago" David admitted "I'm upping the deck number to sixteen" 'god damned Earth Alliance' David thought 'corvette larger than nebular heavy cruiser it's like there over compensating for something'

"It is deceiving isn't it?" he smiled "but she is a tough little ship"

"Little?" David asked "when I first thought to use a corvette I was expecting something smaller" he said walking around the desk and sitting in his chair "not a four hundred and forty four meter by one hundred and forty eight point five meter beast that is sitting in my dock"

"Ah a little over whelming on first view"

"Longer and taller than the battleship Yamato was" said David as he pressed a button on his desk that activated a holographic display, the image started off diffracted with colours floating before solidifying into a red skeletal view of the ship as it sat currently in his dock.

"Over engineered, and under developed, it's a good design overall but very primitive" smiled the colonel

"Yes I see that" said David pinching his nose, it had all seemed so simple on paper but it was all piling on now.

"What do you plan to do to her?" asked William as he loomed over the desk, looking astonished at the casual display of technological wizardry, David smiled

"This is how Sarajevo looks now; this is what it will be soon enough" David pressed another button and a second imaged refracted into view, the docking arms where gone that was the most radical thing colonel Hague had noticed, before the deck plan was shown, the sixteen decks seemed slightly large and there where crawl spaces between the decks that followed the new elevator system yet to be installed. Flashing yellow indicators showed the replacement turrets being those off of a Hyperion heavy cruiser

"How are you going to power those?" he asked "the Savage only has two type three reactors" David raised an eyebrow at that

"You know about those then"?

"Aye, the Savage was, is a Delta three pattern construction originally, but she took a broadside amidships and spent six months getting repaired then another three getting refitted to a type four its why she had, has a slightly fat ass"

"That would be the problem then" said David rubbing his forehead

"Problem?"

"Yes her engineering doors are smaller than they should be" he sighed leaning back in his chair "another thing I assumed was fine and didn't bother with scanning"

"Yeah the type four reactors are smaller than the type three and more powerful by a factor of point five" he said putting his finger through the projection on engineering section destabilising the red image slightly "but those Hyperion plasma cannons are some heavy stuff and power hungry its why the Hyperion's have a different reactor set and they would not fit in the Olympus class chassis"

"Well I guess you do have the right to know as you are my liaison" David sighed "I am going to take apart and rebuild the reactors into something better and more powerful" he said pressing another button on his desk a popping sound made the colonel jump, a hinged lid opened with what looked like vapour seemed to spew forth from it, before a bottle and two glasses where lifted into view "water?" David asked as he poured the clear liquid into his own glass and lifted the bottle over the second.

"No alcohol?"

"No not at eight o'clock in the morning" David said "or anymore I've had my fill of the stuff I almost died last time"

"I'm still on Proxima time" he smiled, David shook the bottle "yes go on then"

"How might I ask did you get here?"

"I arrived by currier shuttle" he said taking the glass "had to share my seat with some of your equipment"

"Ah, thought you would have arrived by war ship"

"No my Hyperion is docked at Io station" he said drinking some of the water "once Old Firestorm told me about your project"

"Old Firestorm?" David had to think of who he meant "oh General Franklin"

"yes, he knew how much I loved the Savage" he smiled "they had to pry me from her bridge with a crowbar" he smiled David pushed another button and a comfy looking char rose from the floor "thank you" he said taking a seat "they gave me a Hyperion the EAS Washington" he said taking another drink "she is a fine ship and in many ways superior to the Savage" he placed the empty glass on the desk "but she doesn't feel like my ship, doesn't feel like home"

"I have never been all that enamoured with the Hyperion design" David said finishing his own drink and vanquishing the dry tingling in his throat "the fore section is fine but the aft" David shook his head "the aft looks to spindly to support her fat ass" the Colonel chuckled "and if I executed an extreme turn and I would be worried that I would leave her ass behind"

"Yeah" he smiled "but she is supposed to be able to withstand any extreme turns and manoeuvres, though I have never tried" he placed both hands on lap before he tapped his thy with his leg like he just remembered something "oh yes I almost forgot" he said reaching into his left hand pocket pulling out a military pad "you need to sign this to make my appointment official" he said as he placed it on the desk and pushed it into David's hand.

David looked through the pad scrolling down as he did so until he reached the end, his father and uncle had taught him that, drilled it into his brain through hard lessons learned from there great grandfather who had almost lost everything, David nodded his head having taken in the contract then using the small stylus that came with it he signed his name and then clicked send, the signed contract would take a few minutes to reach its destination where it would be co-signed stamped and approved.

"I'll have my secretary ready a room for you, it won't be anything special but it will be yours for the duration, it will be a bit rough and not very comfortable"

"That's fine by me" he smiled as he bounced slightly "I could get use to this" he said "I think that this" he said waving an arm around him slightly "is the start of something good for the Alliance" he smiled before heading out through the door.

"You have no idea" David sighed knowing that soon he would need to deal with his planet, before he cursed himself for moving too quickly having convinced himself that he was more prepared than he was, he had just under three months before the small arms contract came up for review, that would then signify the beginning of the four month long contract review period commonly known as the industrial arms circus. That would be the time where he would have to compete against new ships and old ideas. The navy after all was a den of old traditionalists who would cling to their out dated views and ideas like limpets to the bottom of a ship, they would be his new challenge once this one was completed.

David turned to look out of his window leaning back on his chair and for a moment he let his mind drift to better thoughts and a better day.


	8. Chapter 8

(I don't own Babylon 5 or any characters within the show, also please forgive any grammar and spelling errors I am Dyslexic and even with spell checker it's difficult for me to see them)

11/05/2232

David was not amused as he pulled out unnecessary parts and wasted materials from the Hyperion class plasma cannons, he had been shoulder deep inside the main housing since they arrived and those nearest to him could hear the dark muttering of curses coming from him.

"God dammed piece of crap!", David finally erupted, 'I'm half expecting to find bloody vacuum tubes in this piece of crap', thought David as more and more parts where ripped out of the machine, "got enough room for a second capacitor in this thing", then as he pulled out another part a few of his mechanics made a note to remind him of that later, the he suddenly paused "this has got to be a coincidence", he said getting to his feet and leaving the turret housing, he walked over to a desk with in the basic blueprints of the cannons. 'well I'll be damned,' he thought 'once you strip away all the unnecessary kibble and giblets this thing looks like an oversized Discovery class plasma cannon', David smiled, "this is going to be allot easier than I thought" he smiled tapping the wooden table twice to dispel any lingering bad luck.

"Sir!" it was a nervous voice that interrupted his train of thought, David turned to face the man that had called him.

"Peterson", David recognised the man, he was a hard worker and very skilled in engineering, though he was awkward in social interactions.

"Yes sir", he stammered, David could see him puff up slightly in pride at being recognised by his boss, "the crew reports that the fusion reactors have finally been removed", it had taken six days, six days, (one day ahead of schedule), to remove the reactors, had the doors been properly redesigned beforehand it would have taken twelve hours and some elbow grease to do the same job.

"Excellent", David smiled, that was a heavy weight off his shoulders at last, he waved his hand over a device that had a black orb protruding from a deep bronze coloured triangular base pyramid, a green schematic of the Bulk station in wire frame, he tapped a section nearest to the dock, a smattering of up to date information appeared large enough for David to read, "have them sent over to lab 3", he said still reading the information "once I've finished here I will begin their refit" the small man nodded "and send an extra engineering team there", David pulled out an amber crystal rod no wider than a ten cent coin, and long enough to grasp in the hand and leave two visible copper rings at either end, "before you go", he said as Peterson turned to leave, "give this to the Gaffer", he nodded as David handed the rod over to him, with the rod clutched tightly in his left hand Peterson darted out of the door.

David sighed as he walked back into the turret, this was the first of four and as such it was the most difficult, once the refit of this turret was done he would leave detailed instructions for his crews, so that they could do the refit without him over their shoulders correcting everything they are doing like an overbearing teacher.

(An hour later)

David pressed the thick black cable into its dock, and with a meaty thunk, a hiss and a click he was finally finished. David let his head lull back in tiered relief before heading out of the turret, but now David knew for certain that the technology in the Earth alliance could not match up to earth before the federation, they had the potential to equal united earth pre enterprise within two decades and post within five, but that was only in weapons and offensive technology.

As he exited the Turret he breathed a sigh of relief, he was tired and saw but he had finally finished, the turret could now put out the same blast of power as a discovery class warp three star ship, and he had a pile of useless and unnecessary scrap parts that he could sell of use at his own discretion, he dismissed the tired crew that had worked with him, they had been patient beyond sainthood with him as he ordered them about like fresh privates, he would give them a good holiday he resolved with pay.

As the bulkhead door whooshed open David was hit with a wave of cool air that chilled his sweat glistening skin, he hadn't realised just how hot it had been with in the confines of the turret, the internal guts of which could only be accessed by a hatch and a maintenance tube that could barely fit one adult man with a bit of wiggle room for maintenance, but the chill was not unwelcome or uncomfortable on the contrary David found it soothing, and very welcome. He turned left passing a few crew men who nodded in greeting as he passed, he acknowledged with a nod of his own and a smile and continued on.

He entered his office and groaned there at his desk once again was Colonel William Hague.

"Is this going to be a running thing Colonel Hague?" he asked with irritation, "me coming back from a hard work day to find you sitting in my chair behind my desk".

Colonel Hague smiled before standing,

"Well I was on my way back to the quarters you had given me when I heard some interesting information", he straitened his tunic and walked around the desk to face David.

"Oh and what is that", he asked more annoyed that curious.

"Ambassador G'kar is apparently interested in speaking with you".

"Why's that?" he asked walking past the man and taking his seat, he pressed the button that opened his drinking hatch, he then took the cold bottle by the neck, and poured out the cool liquid it held into an equally chilled glass, he drank greedily from it finishing the drink in two gulps before pouring himself another, he finished that and then poured another, Colonel Hague watched as David sighed slightly in contentment.

"We don't know", he said honestly, "Earth force Intel believes that he may know or suspect that you are working on Gravity devises", he sat opposite David in the smaller but still comfortable chair "he was recently recalled to Narn, and has just gotten back"

"Do you believe him to be a danger?"

"No we believe that he wants to negotiate with a view to buy or failing that steal what he needs for the regime".

"When dose he wish to meet", David asked before downing water, the Colonel smiled riley

"Apparently at your earliest convenience", David pressed the button to his holographic display he tapped the hologram on a book like icon, then a set of pages materialised in the air, the used his index and middle finger on his right hand to turn the page.

"I can do Friday the fourteenth at two", he said "but he is going to have to come here", David cancelled the hologram with a quick flourish of his hand, "I have most of that day scheduled for the engine refit".

"Is that wise, him coming here?" the Colonel asked

"Better on my terms'", David sighed twisted and cricked his neck twice, "besides we have very little time to play with here, and I refuse to cut what little we have to accommodate anyone", he poured another drink gesturing an offer to Colonel Hague who put his hand up in refusal, "the Pope himself could walk through that door and unless god himself was willing to grant me more time I would tell him to make an appointment".

Colonel Hague smiled again,

"I'll let them know then" he said standing "they will probably want assurances though"

"Right now the only assurances I'm offering are S, F and A"

"I'll tell them that" he said chuckling slightly over his words


	9. Chapter 9

(I don't own Babylon 5 or any characters within the show, also please forgive any grammar and spelling errors I am Dyslexic and even with spell checker it's difficult for me to see them)

15/05/2232

David sat behind his desk the holographic display in front of him alive with colour, as he moulded the photons, shaped them to every twist and turn of his hand, like a sculptor with clay. He was stressed today the first of the construction crews on his new and still unnamed colony had run into some unexpected delays, on top of that several of his mineral surveyors had been injured checking out a plateau, that initial sensor readings had shown positive for Q40 deposits, he had the office of colonial affaires in contact about colonists and what preparations were being made housing wise, which he had no answer for, he hadn't expected anyone to go there until he had set up anything and he didn't think that he would have anything set up for at least a year.

He hadn't even gotten round to organising temporary housing for the construction crews he had yet to hire, for construction projects he had yet to commission, he needed planers, civil engineers, architects he needed, well he really couldn't think of how monumental that task would be, he had put it in the back of his mind and almost forgot about it, but that one call had messed up his momentum, and now he needed to get back on track.

The adjustments to the weapons had been finished on Monday, though he had to go over all four weapons to make sure that the procedure had been followed, which had taken a few hours but once they were confirmed, the weapons where put in storage until the hull had been upgraded, the reactors had to have their uranium removed which was a slow and labour intensive, involving heavy machinery and thick radiation suits that hampered the workers somewhat but safety was necessary, and David had despaired, he needed to completely overhaul the reactors, and that would eat time faster than an all you can eat buffet at a fat camp.

The hull plating was still being manufactured and would be ready in over two months leaving four to finish the rest, so he decided to focus on the internal systems, his recent patents on better polymer plastics and rubbers had netted David a few hundred million credits, his paper on the warp theory was apparently setting the scientific world a flame, the accompany papers on plasma weaponry and theoretical papers on matter transporters had also lit a flame, he was being hailed as the modern day Da Vinci, then someone let slip that he had been working on gravity, more specifically someone had told the press that he had cracked it, which added to his head ache, people wanted proof ISN had asked for an interview the offices had been contacted by every paper and tabloid on and off world, and that was the reason David was currently trying to distract himself by designing his own ship based on the old Klingon D6 design.

He was concentrating so hard on the design he didn't notice anyone enter his office until

"An interesting design", it was Colonel Hague, David stopped sculpting and looked up at the man "very predatory", he said taking a seat across from David.

"How long have you been there"? David asked cursing himself for not noticing the man.

"Not long", he answered, "wanna talk about it".

David brought up his hands to his face rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palms.

"Just one of those days when everything just seems to pile on" David sat back in his chair trying and failing to relax,

"Go on", Colonel Hague encouraged.

"I never thought that I would be snowed under so quickly", David said with a disgruntled sigh.

"Owning a planet not all it's cracked up to be"?

"No", David drawled "its not", David brought his hands back up to his face and then dragged them down over his skin just trying to bleed his frustration away "I was just notified today by the colonial office that I had several hundred people interested in moving to my colony, and they were asking about when they could move and how much of the colony I had up and running" David began to fiddle with the ship again "and I answered that I wouldn't be prepared to take anyone on for at least a year"

"Didn't go down well"?

"Like the Titanic" he chuckled bitterly "then I also find out that someone blabbed to the bloody press that I had cracked gravity, and now I am being pestered for interviews and to make statements, I have even had a few crack pots that are claiming that I had stolen there designs for gravity generators" David threw his hands up in the air "I haven't designed gravity generators, my plating works on a completely different system and a completely different scale, each individual section of plate generates a gravity field all its own which is controlled by the ship or stations main computer"

"Yeah Earth force Intel is still working on who spilled the beans" said the Colonel "we believe that it may be the same person who told the Narn" he coughed "and the rest of League of Non-Aligned Worlds"

"What?" David exploded in shock.

"Yes the ambassadors from the Drazi and several other members interested in purchasing the gravity design".

"Oh it just gets better", David said pinching the bridge of his nose "what else can go wrong today".

"Actually the Drazi ambassador Vizak would also like a meeting with you", David moaned in distress at the news

"Witch one is he."

"Grey skin quite large and wears a purple sash."

"As if that narrows it down." David rolled his eyes.

They sat in silence for a minuet the holographic ship spinning slowly between them.

"That is a nice design", said the Colonel sounding allot more genuine.

"Yeah," David said "I call it the D6," David was glad to have something else to talk about "it is the sixth design in my defender folder and the most resent," he said tapping the desk the ship shrunk and moved to the left another ship appeared next to it, the design was so similar to the D6 that the Colonel was sure that it was a direct design forebear "and this is the D5," he smiled at the ships "I will be building one of these as system defence ships for my system."

"So which one are you going to go for?" the Colonel said as he looked over the specs, though one thing he noticed was that there was no capacity for fighters on either ship

"The D6" he answered "mainly because it's faster and more agile than the D5 it is also better armed" he said comparing the stats "she's 228.98 meters long 135.11 meters beam and 51.41 meters draft" David smiled

"I notice that you don't appear to have a hyper drive in there" the Colonel said pointing at the engineering section "so it's just for that system then? No gallivanting about" David smiled at the man

"Something like that yes" David said, he wasn't going to disclose the full existent of the ships abilities.

"Well she is beautiful" he said looking the specs over

"Thanks" David smiled "she still needs some refinements and I don't expect to have the first one built for at least a few years"

"Finish the savage first then go on to build your own eh"

"Something like that yeah"

"Well I think you can do it" he said moving towards the door "after all, everything I've seen here the stuff you are doing" he paused "I'm starting to believe the scuttlebutt"

"Scuttlebutt?" David asked

"That you really are the reincarnation of Da Vinci" he chuckled as he exited the office.

David felt very light after he left, as if an oppressive weight had been lifted off of him, he saved the adjustments to the D-6 before shutting down the imager, David had just over five months '169 days' David thought, '169 days to change the world' he smiled to himself I'm starting to believe I can do it myself.


	10. Chapter 10

(I don't own Babylon 5 or any characters within the show, also please forgive any grammar and spelling errors I am Dyslexic and even with spell checker it's difficult for me to see them)

(18/05/2232)

David sat behind his desk working on adjusting the E-web system on the Savage; he had had some difficulty intergrading the polarising amour and the E-web effectively and the way that the E-web was designed meant recalibration was difficult and time consuming, in some cases it seemed deliberately designed to be difficult, he had already adjusted the polarisation frequency of the armour to make it more efficient and the E-web was the last part he needed to finish the defensive systems.

The meeting with G'Kar hadn't gone as planned; from the very moment the ambassador had entered he had controlled the conversation his charm and charisma had been almost overwhelming and added to that he hadn't come alone no he had brought his uncle with him War Leader G'Sten, David had put up a valiant effort and the two wile Narn's had left with nothing he had gained a potential contract for refitting half the Narn war fleet, for just over half of the cost estimate.

But somehow David felt that he had lost, like the two had purposefully allowed him to win and he could not fathom the reason why, it was like every instinct with in him told him that he has lost. With a final adjustment David decided to just save his progress and move on to something else, with a sigh he closed the file and flicked past one named Kronos, he didn't know what to do with himself and what to work on but he needed something to settle his mind.

"Mr Clarke" a voice cut through the intercom, David tapped the blinking red light to answer back

"Yes Mrs Robinson"

"You asked me to contact you when Mr Dubois arrived"

"Excellent send him in"

Mr Dubois was a tall man of Franco African decent; he was tall lean and held himself like the former military officer he was, he had some facial scarring and he was also missing his left arm. He wore a pair of black suit trousers and a white shirt with one of the left arm sleeve pinned to the shoulder, he could tell that the man was not happy.

"Colonel Dubois" David got up from his desk and approached the man to shake his hand; using his other had flummoxed him for a second before he adjusted quickly enough for the colonel not to notice. "It's an honour"

"Mr Clarke" he responded is strong Parisian accent flowed like silk despite the gruffness of the greeting "I must confess I was surprised to get your call I have only recent been discharged"

"Yes I wanted to be the first to snap you up Colonel" David smiled trying to make him lower his defences

"Oh and what would make you think that a crippled army officer worth the trouble", indicating to his stump as he spoke David could see the man was still bitter about the loss.

"The loss of a single arm is not the loss of the man as a whole", David replied "besides I have need of a man like you to lead and train my security forces and to help with a few projects",

"Security forces"? Colonel Dubois raised an eyebrow "mercenary bully boys you mean",

"No I mean security forces", David said as he led the man to a seat and walked around his desk and sat in his chair "have you kept up with the news Colonel Dubois?"

"Yes, hard not too when yours and your fathers company is plastered all over the finical and technological news paper and magazines",

"Yes well I have purchased a section of space, a solar system with twenty three planets one inhabitable so far", David said brining up the solar system the name underneath it indicated that David had named it "Kronos" system "this is Kronos prime the only inhabitable world in the system",

The information displayed about the planet was all in good order though some was missing or incomplete.

"We have begun the initial surveys for colonization of the planet",

"So why do you need me", he asked

"Someone leaked information about my intentions for this world and my own projects, I am being besiege on all sides by Earth Force, the Alliance colonial office, the media and I need someone to help me", David entered another command into his desk and another image popped up "this is what I wish to create with your aide",

"Oh Môn Dure", he muttered under his breath loud enough for him to be heard "this is not a security force this is the beginnings of a military",

"this is my project", he said as images of grey uniformed men and women appeared "I have model it on my own ideas of what a military should be, taking the best ideas from history and science fiction and condensing it all down to this", he said "the planetary defence force for my new world and my security for all buildings and bases for the company, separate branches within the shall also crew the ships as well as a dedicated self defence navy",

Colonel Dubois drank in all the information presented to him

"I have them divided into thirteen orders", David stopped himself "technically twelve", he said looking the Colonel in the eyes "the thirteenth would be a dedicated intelligence and counter intelligence organisation",

The Colonel sat looking at the information again.

"Why me Mr Clarke",

"I want you to build this Colonel Dubois, I", he stopped as the Colonel stood looking over the information "have heard that you had some radical ideas for the restructuring of the earth force army that where turned down", he said as the Colonel started to walk around the desk to where David sat

"Do you mind" he asked indicating towards the control panel

"no do you want..." he was about to ask if he needed to know what buttons did what but the man just pressed to began to cycle through the information.

"Interesting", he said reading through the information "fascinating", he scrolled through uniforms iconography, banners, pay grades, weapons, armour, transportation, benefits, medical cover "you have given this some very deep thought" the man suddenly smiled "you've read Dune"

"Yes, it has always been one of my favourite books"

"I want a completely free hand if I am to do this" he said sitting on the table edge "I will cover the training and the recruitment and use this" he waved his hand through the hologram "as a guide line but some of this is not useable, some of it is common practice and others are innovative and need to be tested"

"I want to be consulted on who you are recruiting but I see no problem with the rest" David smiled and shook the man's hand before handing him a pad and a small stack of paper he pulled out of his desk along with a pen, David nodded as he signed both pieces of documentation, he knew as a military laymen but with his knowledge of Klingon and Cardassian military equipment came a rudimentary understanding of their military organisation and using his own understanding and some ideas from science fiction and history books he had put together his outline, but now he had a proper military consultant he could build his forces for the coming war.

"Welcome to the company General Dubois" David said as he shook the man's hand again,

"I've noticed that you have some blacked out sections here" Mr Dubois ignored the impromptu promotion and pointed to the sections in the weapons lists and statistics that were blacked out "and please call me Louis if we are to work together"

"Yes Louis" he says as if testing the reaction of the man who nodded " come with me" he said as he got up Louis following after him.


	11. Chapter 11

(I don't own B5 JMS dose)

David led Louis out of his office and down one of the corridors towards a turbo lift junction, the red doors opened with a whoosh and the two men entered, the lift itself was cylindrical in shape and over two meters tall, it had red carpet and the walls had a pale blue almost white tint to them, running around the middle of the lift there was a raised yellow belt and attached to the bet where several handles in a dark grey.

David grabbed one of the handles and turned it anti clockwise a small light turned on and David indicated for Louis to grab a handle.

"Shuttle bay two" he said then a faint whirring hiss was herd, and much to Louis astonishment he felt no lurch or any indication that they were moving besides the whirring and a light that seemed to shine and then go out every few seconds, a few moments later the doors whooshed open and there where in a large room overlooking a cavernous space, the room had a bank of consoles on the far wall and two men wearing overalls where checking the instruments over one was standing and the other was sitting.

"Afternoon lads" said David with a smile, the two men turned and smiled back at him

"Afternoon boss" said the larger of the two men as the other went back to his work

"How are the kids Patrick" he smiled

"There good sir, very good Brian has just finished the last of his remedial heavy equipment training and is being sent out to Proxima as member or Earth Force Medical Emergency response team"

"Good" David smiled

"Oh aye it's good" said the other man as he turned around "and if he could stop bragging about it we may just get the final instrument cheques done before shift change"

"Oh I ain't that bad Herc"

"Yeah you are," he chucked turning back to the consoles, David just smiled at the two men

"Is number three ready?" he asked before Patrick could bite back

"Aye sir she's ready to go"

"Excellent prepare for a launch"

The two looked at each other before Patrick sat down next to his work colleague

"Right away sir"

The doors on the left opened with a whoosh onto a metal gangway, David lead Louis out onto it and onto a separate platform with its own safety bar and sitting on the safety bar was a small console, as Louis joined him he pressed a button and the entire platform began to lower to the ground.

"The original base took Earth Force engineers three years to excavate the original dock and that was with a mixture of nuclear ordinance and custom made heavy equipment, it only took my engineers three months with my own heavy equipment to do all of this," he smiled indicating to the vast expanse around them, "the original landing bay was set up for zero g environment and as soon as we installed the gravity plating we had great difficulty in landing and supplying this rock so we had to redesign or replace the doc" he explained as the two came to a halt at the floor of the docking bay, the ship they were headed for was an older Earth Alliance light shuttle that had been modified, its hull was no longer a dull matt dark grey, but a pearlescent white the once round exhaust thrusters had been replaced by two vertical rectangular box engines that began to glow red.

"So you redesigned it" Louis said as he took in the vast cavernous space

"Indeed we did, a complete redesign and expansion" he smiled "as you can see we have a three story shuttle bay and storage for around nine to ten light shuttles like the Galileo" he indicated to the nineteen meter by sixteen meter shuttle.

"So where leaving your base?"

"What I need to show you is not located on the rock"

"Oh and where is it"

"Your about to find out" David smiled and walked into towards the ship.

The internals of the ship where quite large but Spartan, and the main control bridge was situated in the head of the ship, the control bridge was thirteen foot long by twelve feet wide, the main control console was a crescent shape facing a dodecahedral transparent aluminium, the set up was almost identical to the bombardier cockpit in a B17 bomber, behind and to the left of the command seat was a second seat with a console on the wall, it was the main defence/offence console for the shuttle controlling the four turrets located on the ventral, dorsal, starboard and port for the ship for defence and two heavy cannons that where strong enough thanks to modifications to take on arrange of targets from multiple fighters and up to a frigate and everything in-between, on the opposite wall was another seat and console that had what appeared to be a scanning platform, and to the rear wall was a final console that had a schematic and deck plan of the shuttle that sat between two doors, the left door was the one they had come in from that had a corridor leading to the entrance/ exit, and the other lead to crew quarters that had three double bunks.

David sat behind the main control console as Louis took the position on his right, he noticed that the console was not powered on but could be with a simple touch.

The console in front of David came alive and with a muffed hum so did the ship, a strange chirping sound cut through the gentle hum of the activating engines.

"Galileo to control" David spoke firmly

"Control here sir" the response came quickly and sharply

"Are we cleared to launch?" he asked, there was a pause for a few moments before the answer came

"You are cleared to launch sir"

David smiled as he input the corresponding commands into the console, the only indication that the journey and even begun was the view through the main cockpit window, Louis was quite unnerved that he hadn't felt the ship move and quite queasy as the craft flew through the now open hanger doors, they where thick and heavy with teeth that locked into each door sealing them with an airtight lock.

The sickly feeling that seemed to ooze over Louis began to reach a point where he could no longer contain it and he dashed for the crew quarters and into the latrine, the sound of heavy retching and coughing could be heard gushing from the closing door a whoosh of water later Louis came back into the cock pit pail and with a slightly green pallor to his skin.

"Are you ok"? Asked David

"No" he responded shakily "this ship is unnatural I am not used to not feeling nothing at the take off or the lack of feeling any motion in this ship" he said retaking his seat

David just nodded

"it is a little unsettling not feeling any motion the first few times but you adjust to it" he turned back to his console "if it makes you feel better I can turn down the inertia dampener" Louis nodded appreciatively, David tapped a few keys then made an anti clockwise move while holding his fingers on the console, and instantly at the feeling of slight trembling beneath his boots and a slight almost insignificant weight against his chest colour began to return to his face.

"Thank you" Nothing more was said for a few minutes as Louis was returning to normal, the green in his cheeks was subsiding and the regular tone of his flesh was begging to bleed through the almost paper pale skin tone

"We will be arriving in three hours at the most"

"I'm sorry what?" Louis blurted in astonishment "We left from the Hawking belt didn't we" Louis asked astonished, the Hawking belt was the renamed asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

"Yes" said David as his seat turned so that he was facing him

"I thought we were heading for a ship to jump us the rest of the way"

"No, the shuttle is more than fast enough"

"This is impossible"

David simply smiled,

"Nothing is impossible; there are only different levels of difficulty"

They spent the majority of the journey conversing over the engine and how it was possible for the ship to make such speed, and then going over some more of the info that David had given Louis on organisation and structure suggestions along with some in-depth annualises on Earth Force space tactics and the inadequacy of said tactics against a technologically superior foe like the Centari.

"Now while the Nova dreadnoughts sheer firepower alone would give pause to even the most powerful of known war ships, its lack of speed and maneuverability mean that without its escorts and fighter screen it is..."

"Shuttle Galileo you have entered Earth space, you will be escorted to alliance base alpha for inspection" David groaned in annoyance

"Negative Earth control my flight path was cleared by order of Earth Force Command Priority Gold"

"Authorisation code and command clearance"

"Authorisation code Ten Brake Alpha Strike Strike Bravo"

"Command Clearance Platinum"

"Stand by"

It was a tense few minutes but the reply came from a much more shaken voice

"My Apologies sir you are authorised to land, once again I apologise for any inconvenience" the communication ended with an abrupt click.

"What the hell was that" asked Louis his accent thickening "I have never heard of Platinum clearance before"

"Platinum is a specialised code used only for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President of the Alliance" he said as the shuttle moved down and made its way through its re-entry window, flames suddenly danced at the cock pit screen as the shuttle powered down through the sky, Louis was astonished that there was no jerking or turbulence, then just as suddenly as the flames appeared they were gone.

"re-entry successful" David said as he turned to face Louis "and err, just to address the elephant in the room the reason I have the code is because the Alliance brass want exclusive access to my tech and don't want anything to get in the way of what I'm designing and manufacturing"

"Ah"

"Yeah, they gave me and the company free movement from the rock to earth so that I can work without having to wait for parts and equipment" the shuttle turned and headed for the next destination.

They flew at pace over desert for a few moments before the shuttle began to lose altitude then dead for a landing base where a crane like frame work was waiting for them, as the shuttle came to a halt the crane frame work suddenly came alive clamping down on the shuttle.

"Here we are"

"Where is hear exactly"

"I like to call it Area 52"

(Time Skip)

"Three months, three long laborious months but finally and gleefully I christen this ship the NX-01 Sarajevo" the crowd of workmen and their families cheered in the dry dock as David smashed a bottle of Champaign on the armoured hull of the ship "may all who sail in her be blessed" the applause from the small gathering may not have been defining but it was heartfelt.

David raise d his hand for some silence and as it petered out David smiled once more

"But none of this could be accomplished with you and for that I applaud you" David clapped loudly and proudly to his workers, "and I would like to invite all of you for the madden voyage of earths and indeed humanities first ship that has its own gravity"

David noticed a woman he had never seen before in the crowd, she looked of European decent with dark brown almost black hair, she was wearing a suit and had black framed glasses that suited her angular face, seemed to be taking notes, a reporter maybe after wiped his lip with his thumb he discreetly tapped the emblem on his suit lapel, the suited security beside him responded by touching his cuff links.

"Now enough of this talk let's celebrate" there was applause and some cheers as David stepped into the crowd to mingle with his crew and there families.


	12. Chapter 12

(I don't own B5 JMS dose)

Maria had been a part of ISN for just three years and this would be her biggest scoop yet, and her only scoop, she had in fact yet to be promoted out of the bull pen, but with this she could be well on her way to being the head anchor of ISN news, she had managed to get into the launch party of Clark's wonder ship, technically her brother had the tickets as he was one of the technicians behind the ship but that wasn't important right now, she smiled to herself as she reached up discreetly pushing her glasses back up into position and simultaneously activating her specially designed camera hidden in her glasses, and began to walk around the people and making small talk asking discreet question of the families and crews but never leaving the orbit of her brother, then suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder it was large and calloused, she turned to face the owner of said hand and turned into his mid torso, Maria craned her neck up to look the man in the eye, he was large over six foot five and cutting an imposing figure in an all black suit and tie with a white shirt, the only thing that stood out enough to catch her eye was a golden Lion head badge on his lapel and that was because it was shining light down into her eyes.

"Excuse me Miss" he said in a deep Russian accent "Mr Clark would like to speak to you" Maria's whole body was shaking as the large man lead her past the groups of whispering people, past her brother and into a small office just off from the main hanger where the party was taking place where nobody could hear or see what was happening.

The office had a single table with two chairs, two filing cabinets on the left hand side and a white board with information she didn't understand and graphs that where beyond the scope of her knowledge and sitting behind that desk was the immaculately dressed David Clarke with a gentile smile on his face as if he was listing to peaceful music, dread seemed to seep into her very heart as she sat in the seat opposite him.

"Ms Adams" he smiled "how are you enjoying the party" she didn't know how to respond but stammered through a

"It's alright" she stopped then stammered out "its grate I'm enjoying it"

"Good, good" he said as he leaned forward "so why is an ISA reporter here"

"I'm not technically a reporter more of a researcher" she was even more nervous now and rushed through her words "my brother works here sir"

"Ah yes he does, he is a gifted programmer" he tugged at his cuffs "I am very happy with both his ability and his dedication, so happy in fact I'm offering him a company scholarship to a university of his choice to get his doctorate"

"Thank you I'm sure he will be thrilled he's been saving for it for years now"

"May I" he asked indicating to her glasses, with shaking hands she removed the glasses and handed them over to him "it's quite amazing you know how we can shrink down complex machinery these days, you wouldn't even suspect a camera was here unless you knew what to look for" she didn't answer as he was studying them "though I do wonder why it is you could not have waited for two weeks for the public demonstration" again she didn't answer

"I wanted a scoop" she answered looking down and blushing she felt like she was in the headmasters office and he was going to call her parents, he smiled at her

"I can respect that" he said handing the glasses over to her "you can have your scoop" he smiled then let her go "but you owe me"


	13. Chapter 13

David sat on his throne in the centre of the savages bridge and sighed the tour had been a roaring success with him explaining how the systems work in a broad senesce worked, while not give anything away that he didn't want the whole time he was policing the information as stringently as he could with Miss Adams in the crowd, he told them of the improvements overall systems and how with his upgrade to the ship it could extend its patrol range and overall comfort level for the crews, after all, happy crews meant productive crews with the tour concluded it was time for the maiden voyage of the savage.

The bridge was designed to reflect the federation design philosophy of modular design with the commander's chair in the centre directly in front of that was the two consoles for the one for the helm/navigation and another for operations management systems, behind the command chair on a standing console was the tactical operations system and on the back wall is the sensor, engineering and communications consoles along with the seats for them.

"we have received authorisation from the launch bay sir we are cleared to launch," said the Conn officer he was happy that Hauge allowed him to command even if it was just for the launching, the man was standing off to his right with the crowd of people standing on the bridge to enjoy the first launch of the ship.

"confirmed release docking clamps and fuel cables take us out one-quarter nav thrust"

"clamps and cables confirmed released, sir," said the operations officer

"one-quarter aye" the beeping of the console accompanied the ship creeping out of the asteroid base and David could not help but smiled he had done it, with the help of all these people he had made his first step on the long road that would hopefully save mankind.

David stood then smiled to Hauge who was stifling a grin

"you have the Bridge number one" Hauge nodded then sat in the command chair then swivelled from left to right and looked up at David like a kid in a candy store

"I am definitely recommending this chair to Earth force if nothing else," he said chuckling "ok Conn set course for the outer asteroid belt best speed"

"aye sir Best speed"

It took about two hours for the ship to get to the asteroid belt for the cruise, and it described by several of the passengers and a few more of the crew just how smooth the journey had been it was as if they weren't moving at all, the engineering crew were loving the upgraded reactors they required less monitoring and didn't fluctuate wildly like the reactors on the regular Olympus, in fact, a few were a bit agitated as they had served before on Olympus class ships and had hated their time on them as they were forever adjusting the reactors and monitoring them constantly in case of failures or overloading and anything else that would cause the crew to evacuate the ship, now on this one they had nothing to do, it was both refreshing and frustrating.

The Olympus-class was one of the oldest classes in production and it showed, they were constantly going in for upgrades or adjustments, bit it proved to be a solid weapons platform during the war and could be built and upgraded quickly the turnaround time was vastly shorter than the Artemis or Sagittarius class ships and needed less crew to operate, but the main drawback of the ship was that it had no legs, they were never designed for border patrol or deep space assault missions and that was one of their weaknesses but David had rectified that with his adjustments and upgrades he had given the old ship a new lease on life, at least if the EA and Earth Force approved and gave him the contract.

He knew that several companies were clamouring for that contract, there were all larger and had vastly more experience in the field which all counted against him, and he also knew that several of them had produced ships to replace the Olympus completely and next week he would be stepping onto the field with the Savage against them.

"David" he was brought out of his musing by Hauge "where at the asteroid belt"

"oh sorry I was in a world of my own" Hauge smirked slightly behind his hand as he scratched the left side of his nose with his right hand, "you can start the test" Hauge nodded

"begin navigational and weapons exorcise"

The ship dodged and weaved through the asteroid belt at speed and responded like almost like a fighter but with none of the G-force associated with it, the ship pulled twists and turns that would leave any pursuing fighters or ships eating its neutrino dust, and the weapons just astonished the crew and onlookers, the speed and power of the plasma bolts was astonishing it took three shots to disintegrate an asteroid that would take allot more from a ship of this size and from any two classes up.

After half an hour of dancing around asteroids and calibrating the weapons systems, they decided that the maiden shakedown run had been a success and that it was time to head back when.

"sir I'm picking up craft on an intercept course"

"confirm that" order Hauge

"Aye sir" a second later the young man responded again "confirmed sir six small objects moving at speed"

"action stations polarise the armour" he ordered as red hued light and klaxons began to sound, Hauge tapped a white button on the arm of the command chair "this is the Captain we have detected several small craft incoming we don't know their intent but are going to action station just in case" he pressed the button one more time before he turned to the communications officer "Comms friend or foe challenge"

"aye sir"

"Conn evasive manoeuvres"

"tactical"

"the ships are moving in they have activated weapons"

"lock on weapons"

The ship shuddered slightly as the enemy craft made their first attack run on his ship

"polarisation effect is down to 99.99 percent"

"return fire" a strange echoing beeping sound emanated as the Savage for the first time since her refit struck out in anger her weapons systems had been networked to lock onto and destroy up to two hundred and thirty fighters while still engaging a capital ship of similar or smaller size, the weapons spat out plasma bisecting the fighters destroying them instantly.

"well that was interesting," said Hauge as he turned to face David "were going to have to report this to Earth Force, Raiders in Sol space is unheard of"

"yes as soon as we get back" replied David as he kept his eyes on the main monitor and the debris field that had once been fighters when he noticed something on them one of the fighters had some , type of insignia that he could not place.

That strange insignia would play on his mind all the way back to the Rock, thereafter analysing the computer data he could still not identify the logo as belonging to anyone he was familiar with and he didn't want to dismiss the attack as just raiders rolling the dice and coming up short something was definitely askew here he just couldn't see what.


	14. Chapter 14

David had never been so angry in his whole life the department of navy had insulted him to such a degree that he had to restrain himself from taking the head off the obnoxious Chief of Naval Research who wouldn't know innovation if it jumped up and kicked him in his balls, his sensor systems where to "complex" and would require an entirely new training to be able to use it effectively, never mind the fact that he had made it mirror the readouts and operating systems of the current systems in use, the weapons systems while more energy efficient don't offer that much better range and while they don't guzzle power there is not enough of a benefit for the naval ordinance department to order the changeover.

But they gladly took his gravity plating his armour polarisation systems and his structural integrity reinforcement fields no problem, but his engines were too powerful and would need a "drastic" overhaul to current Naval procedure and tactics as such he could not sign off on them without the Chief of Naval Operations and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy Research Development and Acquisition departments signing off on them and even then it would take two to three years minimum to test and prototype the system.

It was as if the Navy was built of red tape, stupidity and tradition. David was sure that if they could get away with it the fleet would be made of wood and fire black powder non-rifled cannon and the engine systems would be a collection of solar sails, but it was all a valuable learning experience and the Earth Alliance Department of Defence had paid him enough money that it would offset any losses his debacle at negotiations with the Narn had made and his small army of lawyers had made sure that he hadn't signed an exclusive contract leaving him beholden to the EA and their political agenda, that and the contract he had signed with the Drazi would keep him and his company in the black for a long time.

His own subspace tachyon communications grid would be online soon making it long range communications allot easier and harder to intercept and would be compatible with but not beholding to the current EA systems, that seemed to be his mantra these days compatible with but not beholding to, it was as if in his mind he was beginning to divorce himself from the Earth Alliance as a whole and their politics as a major part of that, Ever since the end of the Dilgar war Earth and humanity had been strutting like Travolta, waving their flag and acting like they had single handily taking the entire war by themselves, like the Leauge of Non-Alined worlds hadn't been fighting for a year before that, like they hadn't had tens of billions of casualties.

It was almost like World War two all over again, But at least now he had time to build Cronos Prime into a world he could be proud of and be done with the EA as a whole, for now, Cronos would be what he would concentrate on so he left his father in charge of his corporate enterprise for as long as it took to sort out Cronos whereupon he would resume control of the company from Cronos.

But with the concentration he now had to the building of his world he had to go over the colonisation requests personally, not that he didn't have a dedicated staff for the process but he wanted to know what kind of people were applying before he began to cut them down, somewhere from downright crazy people wanting to go off grid for whatever reason people do so, somewhere from people who felt that their religion or their way of conducting themselves were contradictory to the laws of the Earth Alliance and were not protected from the freedom of religion set into the alliance charter, gone where the days of best and brightest which was somewhat a disappointment but when you live in a world where space flight is as common as traveling by ship or plane it didn't really matter anymore, but the vast majority was from people wanting to push the frontier to start anew to leave behind their old lives, but there was one small minority that he was keeping an eye out for as he carefully went over the information in front of him the telepaths who refused to Kowtow to the Psi Corps and went on the run, but he could find none that were obvious to him and after an hour he put them down and went to go over the plans for his capital.


	15. Chapter 15

It had taken weeks to get the parts he needed and even longer to make sure that they were properly machined and the microcircuitry was calibrated correctly, his new field of microcomputing was in its infancy on Earth but was picking up popularity as tech companies saw the benefit in being able to store vast amounts of terabytes in data in a much smaller and easily handled package, once he had made sure everything had passed his final personal quality control he had begun to construct his first industrial scale replicators, though they were of Cardassian design he had used a mixture of Federation and Dominion techniques to refine them to an acceptable degree, but even after all of that he could only replicate simple things for weeks as David had yet to get his programming correctly written, he had to call in a programming expert to help him refine his coding lingo.

He had begun with the basic frame of a constructor the mechanical heavy labourers of the federation that were used for hostile environmental mining and construction on newly colonised worlds, these machines were large in size and could be programmed with the type of building needed, along with the location of local materials so they could begin mining the amount of raw materials needed, or alternatively they can be provided access to replicators using a specially designed interface that would allow them to work without human overseers, but those replicators would have many of the systems locked out as the Federation still had a cautious streak with how much autonomy they give machines, they were not designed to be bipedal but rather quadrupedal they had low powered laser cutting tools and could be programmed for a multitude of different cutting options they could even work stone into passable pieces of art if programmed correctly.

He would have twelve to excavate a massive deposit of marble that was situated in the northern hemisphere near to where he was going to build his grand capital city, he had everything planned out to the smallest detail, he had decided on the Prussian model for a capital with Russian imperial influences here and there, but there was one thing that he wanted to do since he was a child, he had a dream, he wanted to build a palace more beautiful and opulent that the Winter Palace of St Petersberg, he already had one of the Centari's best architects oh the job of designing it and had set him the challenge of building it, the man was the twenty-third or twenty-second cousin of Londo Molari and well outside the Centrum's sphere of influence and almost out of the branch family as well though David suspected that Londo would find out eventually he didn't expect a visit for a long time.

But in the meantime, he had been asked to meet with the pope, his holiness Pope John the thirty-third was a peaceful man he had even urged all members of the catholic church to pray for the soles of the Dilgar after news of the destruction of Omelos, all in all, he seemed to be a good man and one of the better Popes.

David was met at Roma spaceport by two men who identified themselves as Swiss guard they wore black suits and ties with only a very small cruciform pin on the inside of the lapel, once they had identified themselves they escorted David to a waiting car, it was a plain black sedan with tinted windows, the journey took about an hour from the port through the mid-afternoon traffic, they progressed through in silence but David didn't mind he spent much of the journey watching the beautiful countryside, as soon they hit the city that's when things got interesting.

The Guards went through the back streets and took so many turns that he had no way of knowing where he was going until they came over a large bridge before the great fortress of Castel Sant'Angelo, they followed a large group of tourists as they were led in by a guide a strikingly beautiful olive skinned brunet, when they suddenly took a left where the group took a right and they led him to a path where a wooden gate was sealed and guarded by two Swiss Guard in full regalia, they stood to attention there halberds drawn in.

They took the secret path into the Vatican itself and then into the study of the pope.

"You know" started David "I understood you wanted security but this is slightly overdone don't you think?" he said to the Swiss guard

"please forgive the antics of my guards" the voice was old and as David turned he saw the Pope in plain white robes with an old silver crucifix around his neck and a single ring on his wedding finger.

"your holiness" David nodded to the man in respect

"thank you for agreeing to meet me, my son," he said as he indicated for David to sit in the chair opposite from him as he sat down, David sat down cautiously, he hadn't been a very devout in recent years, in fact, he hadn't taken communion in a long long time

"I have to say I was surprised that you would want to speak with me," David said

"yes I have concerns," said the bishop of Rome "about the souls of those who chose to leave for the star I always have"

"What would you have me do"

"I only ask that you set up an appropriate place of worship for them my son" David stared at the white robbed man, this could not be the only thing he called him for why all the secrecy

"is that all?" David asked

"no," he said "when mankind reached for the stars and found life it was perhaps the most momentous thing to ever happen in human history since he walked among us," he said crossing himself "it was that moment that perhaps tested us more than anything in history and we had to change, to adapt to the current times" he indicated to a small box that David hadn't noticed "I have invited many new colonial leaders here, few ever take me up on it fewer actually listen" he pulled the box over to himself and opened it,inside was a single rusty key "this is a relic of the church older than any held within reliquaries around the world and on the colonies"

"is this"

"yes my son this is the Key of Saint Peter"

"why would you..." David was cut off before he could

"every colony of Humanity that has built a church has had one of these a decline relic to connect it to mother church here in Rome" he looked David in the eye "this is one for your colony young man," he said "this was why I asked for a secret meeting these relics are priceless both in value and in historical significance"

"and you're just giving this to me?"

"yes this way should anything happen to earth then the church will survive"

David said for a while longer discussing theology before he had to leave taking the relic with him, David wasn't sure how to feel he had been trusted with a very old relic to build his church around and he hadn't even designed one yet, he sighed more work, David thought that a world of his own would be easy to build and get on with, but he had severely underestimated what he would need and had been smacked around the head with his own naivety constantly so much so that he was starting to feel like a seed bag in a gym.


	16. Chapter 16

'Whoever uttered the words it's good to be the king was a damned liar', thought David as he read and signed more data slate's from his colonists, authorisation for an Orthodox Church was approved as was a new Synagogue and a Mosque, he read through reports of large Iron tin and copper deposits and complaints from everyone and their mother over the most mundane of BS, and he was meeting with his military adviser Colonel Dubois over issues with the uniforms and armour that had revealed some slight deficiencies than needed to be addressed.

Along with that he had just received the latest shipment of agricultural produce that had arrived that day and had included a several hundred horses cows sheep and pigs, they had to have a place to put them and a way to feed them that was a new kind of pain in the butt because the storage warehouse for their food had not arrived and he had to store it somewhere.

So, much to his annoyance he had to use valuable space on one of his freighters that now wasn't being used to transport needed supplies, so now he needed to pay the crew to sit on their hands until the prefab food storage warehouse arrived, and he had to pay the freighter company for the continued use of the ship, granted he owned the company but it was the principle of the matter.

But thankfully the last of the prefab temporary accommodations for his current population had arrived early and had been built quickly so that the builders, the plumbers and a whole host of people needed to construct his colony had a place to live in some comfort.

David had made sure that the prefabs had been built near to the spaceport which had been doubling as his administration office for a few weeks, the larger construction mechs had been put to use on the road and putting the foundation down once that was done the builders would come in and take over construction to Davids building laws and overall style and being the practical type he refused to have any building over five stories tall.

Two buildings had recently had their framework compleated and full construction of the shell would commence in a few days, of the two one would be the administration building and the other the hospital, both had been built with almost excessive amounts of reinforcements built into the structural framework, and both buildings were very large But David expected that once he had constructed and got his colony operational there would be tonne more people coming for opportunities at new life.

He also wanted the permanent buildings built before the first of the true colonists arrived in three months, while also sorting out some of the issues he had with the colonial office after he had a slight altercation with the Secretary of State for the Colonies, he had enough of being spammed by them over the speed of his colonial building projects and the so-called refusal to adhere to the regulation of parliamentary oversight, which had been the final straw he had, in fact, walked into the parliamentary office without an appointment and gave the man such a severe dressing down that the angriest of drill instructors would bush at, his tirade had been enough for the secretary's assistant outside to call for security believing that David was murdering the man, suffice to say he had not been spammed by that office since and had been barred from entering that wing of the administration building without an appointment and a security guard escort.

General Dubois office was just two doors down from Davids own and he was quite thankful for the break, he really needed more staff his poor secretary Mrs Robinson was going above and beyond the call so much so that he had given her the week off and had told her that she could hire as much staff as needed which made her day.

David knocked once before he entered, the office was Spartan, when compared to Davids, with just a desk and two chairs with a single computer on the desk and a single picture frame, Colonel Dubois looked up from his work

"David" he greeted

"Louis" David sat in the spare chair "you wanted to talk"

"yes," he said locking the computer "I've had a chance to run the equipment for the 'security force' through the gambit and we have had some minor issues that need to be addressed"

"alright what are they," David said surprised he had designed the equipment to be as durable as possible while being as light as possible so hearing that there were issues in the field is slightly disheartening

"the armour is great it works well and it doesn't get hot once it gets hit and the impact is sufficiently reduced that an impact from anything other than a few yards is diminished to almost not even register"

"so what's the issue?" David asked it sounded like it was working to spec so he wasn't sure what the issue was

"it's too light"

"I'm sorry what"

"it's too light and the boys don't feel comfortable in it"

"too light"?

"that's what I said yes"

"I'm just having trouble wrapping my mind around this," David said getting to his feet and walking the room trying to process this "I don't understand why is that an issue"

"that's what the reports are telling me," he said indicating to the small collection of A4 sized pads that were piled in his inbox, David sat in the chair again

"the ceramic polymer I used was chosen because of its ability to disperse an impact from a military issue PPG with little damage and no heat bleed through,I literally cannot make it any header without sacrificing its ability to stop and disperse a blast" he said rubbing his eyes in a vain attempt to try and rid himself of this latest example of industrialised stupid "and the material I used in the main jacket is a hybrid weave of kevlar with carbon nanotube latis and several other materials that have names with too high a rate of consonants to vowels for me to pronounce and sound like I have a Brain in my head"

"I can understand that" Louis put up his arms in surrender "but I can only give you the information I am presented with from the men in the field and they are telling me that the armour feels too light and they aren't comfortable wearing it"

"well boo bloody hoo," said David "that armour will save lives, and when the current generation of Earth Force armour can bearly stop a single pistol shot and can't even slow down a rifle shot from their own design this armour will and can do so multiple times so if they don't like it they can lump it"

"there is also the issues with the stahlhelm and the jackboots" he grabbed a tablet from his desk

"sapogi" David corrected automatically

"ah sapogi"

"yes well what about them"

"A few of the PR boys are a bit iffy one the image it conveys"

"I refuse to change a solid and practical design because a few of the man take issue with the style of uniform they have been given" he got to his feet and turned to leave "and you can tell the PR idiots to stay out my way for the next few days or they will need to find a very good proctologist to remove my foot from their colon"


	17. Chapter 17

'The mercenaries had failed', it thought as it glided through the gilded halls of the earth alliance 'the disruption has survived' rage filled it's very being 'how dare it', invisibly it reached out and touched the minds of all the people in the building making sure none of the taint had festered, it was unacceptable and inconceivable that one creature could disrupt the sanctity of the circle it was perfection, 'someone must have interfered'it reasoned 'but who would dare' it continued to glide imperceptibly to any not as powerful as its self 'they yet sleep and their agents do not do subtle' then it found something.

Technology that did not belong, powerful technology that would disrupt the balance, even more, it touched the mind of the man reviewing it 'David Clarke' it whispered through its mind and out to its ship hiding in the poles of the world who in turn reached its mind out into the collective of voices all singing in perfect order, as it touched the choir the song changed ever so slightly imperceptive to most a cord had changed 'yes' it said as the song reached it 'the pebble cannot be allowed to cause an avalanche'

With its mission given, it began to limit the contamination,it could not do much for the gravity or power systems but they would stop anything else contaminating the circle then they would deal with the malformation,they would bring it into the light for chaos could not be allowed in a perfectly structured cycle especially as they were approaching the critical point where any deviation threatened to undo everything they had worked towords.


	18. Chapter 18

David was again buried under a pile of pads and documentation do much so that he could bearly see above them to his own door and he was dog tired, he hadn't slept in three days as plans for his coronation had spiralled, he was so tired that he decided to put his head down for a while at his desk as it seemed the only place he could get any rest, he had considered a bunk in his office but had decided against it and now he was wishing he had.

As his heavy eyes rolled shut a brief wave of blissful unconsciousness washed ver him before

"ahem"

David jerked awake knocking over half a dozen pads as he looked to see who had woken him.

"David we need to talk," said Louis, he was wearing his camo fatigues and red beret

"yeah sure what's up" David replied a bit hazy and visibly tired

"you're working too hard," he said taking a seat "I've been asked by the crews and ministers to ask you to take a holiday"

"I am fine"

"no you're not" he replied "you shouted down some of the work crews and you made one of the PA's cry I mean literally burst into tears"

"oh," he said dejectedly in realisation "I did that"

"yeah you did"

"It's just I have so much work and no matter what I do it just piles up"

"Look take a few days or a week off relax we can handle the workload until you get back"

"yeah maybe your right"

"maybe nothing I am right," he said "I took the liberty of contacting your father who contacted your friend Jon he had a leave coming up and is looking forward to speaking with you again"

"yeah that sounds good"

"I have prepared one of the ships to take you to earth it's a two-day journey relax and most of all sleep."

"let me just sign something" David as he searched for a pad amongst the pile

"no, go now"

"I can't I just have to" he paused as he grabbed the pad he needed "aha here it is," he said placing his thumb on scanner signing it "ok now I can go," he said placing the pad on the out pile.

David packed enough for a week before he made his way to the spaceport, it had expanded immensely since he had moved into his palace, it now sprawled over a wide enough area that it equalled Heathrow airport in its heydey. David had made sure that Louis had what he needed to take over for a while, he had even made sure that two of his now four secretarial teams would get him up to speed on all of the Projects David had been working on, little did he know the impact of the decision he had made to leave at that time and just how far reaching the consequences would be.

(Three Days later)

David woke in agony, the light of day bored into his eyes like a drill and his brain felt like it wanted to shoot through his temples, he draped his arm over his eyes to protect himself from the pain

"Computer" he shouted expecting a beeping of acknowledgement but there was nothing, covering his face with his hands he shouted again "Computer" again nothing he took a moment to collect himself before he decided to get up which he immediately regretted as his legs refused to hold his weight leaving him crumpled on the floor in pain instead of on the bed in pain, turning himself over he grabbed curtain and pulled it closed darkening the room completely but the pain only subsided slightly.

David looked around and had no idea where the hell he was, the room was spacious and had a tacky roman look to it when he noticed it a very small very petite feminine foot sticking out of the covers and over the edge of the bed.

"oh no" he whispered looking around for anything that could identify who the woman was, then he saw it, her handbag, it was a plain brown leather bag with a long strap and looked well worn, David crawled over to it and popped it open pulling out the first thing that he could grab, it was a picture a rare printed picture as they don't use film anymore but he instantly recognised what it was.

A wedding picture from a Las Vegas Chappell, his wedding photo, he was standing opposite a short brunette woman with blue eyes and somehow he was in his coronation garb, a costume he had designed but had yet to commission, it was a black Hussars Pelise tunic in the style of the 1790-1815 with silver piping and facings with purple cuffs and collar, with a dolman jacket over the left arm, with a sword belt and sabre at his left hip, she was wearing a white wedding dress that looked like something he had seen before in a picture, it was pure white and had pearls inlaid into the bodice and the small crown atop the veil, she had a long golden cape.

But it was the 'Priest' that caught his attention, the Elvis impersonator was a dead ringer for John de Lancie, then the image of him winked at David, who dropped the picture in shock before he looked for and found the wedding certificate.

"David Morgan Clark and Anastasia Natasha Romanov, Certification of Marriage from the state of Nevada in the American State Earth Alliance" he whipped his face and nose "oh shit" then at his left he caught a glint of white light and a note.

_Guess who_

_That's right it's me the one and only Q I thought you could use a little break from the affairs of state for some affairs of state "heh giggidy", and before you ask yes she is one of those Romanovs a direct descendent from the rulers of Imperial Russia, I thought you could use a woman's touch in your life_

_Hugs and kisses _

_Q_

David Cursed loudly, regretting that he had ever listened to Louis about a holiday, he just knew that the Russian consortium would throw a bitch fit with possibly the entirety of the Eastern Bloc, and how was he going to exsplain this to his parents.


	19. Chapter 19

David stared transfixed onto the petite foot that was out of the duvet covers all pain gone as his mind decided to go down every disastrous path he could possibly imagine, it wasn't until he saw the big tow twitch that he moved, though he was still unable to stand he crawled to the toilet and emptied the contents of his previous night down the porcelain throne and as he flushed he could imagine all of his plans swirling down the drain like the bile he had ejected.

He pushed himself until his back was against the marble bath tub and ran his hand through his hair, sitting there in the bathroom was the first time that he got a real smell of himself, he smelt dank and dirty, he pulled himself over to the gigantic shower he forced the door open with all his strength and crawled inside, he turned the water on and let it work its magic and after a few minutes he felt his strength return and he rose to his feet shakily, after a few more minutes the shaking stopped as the warm water cascaded down his body strengthening him he heard is new wife stir.

David took a deep breath to calm his nerves and turned the water off, he stood for a moment to collect himself and watched as droplets of water dripped from his fringe, this was perhaps the most terrifying moment of his life so far, both of them.

David rolled his shoulders and neck before he reached out for a towel only to hit a harder surface than he had expected, reaching out for the mystery item it was long with a soft outer skin and a course inside he pulled it off the hook and was stunned, this was a military style gunbelt, it even had a silver and brass belt buckle, the main body being brass which contrasted well against the silver round face that had the Bavarian Motto "_**steadfast in loyalty**_" above a crown sitting atop an imperial laurel wreath and beneath that the Prussian Motto _"__**God With Us**__" _both mottos wherein german.

But what really caused the gasp was the EM-33 Plasma-Disruptor Pistol that was held in a leather holster, he had personally designed the weapon meshing together United Earth and Cardassian small arms technology, it was supposed to be going through testing in area-52 because of coolant issues he had yet to mass produce the weapon, so how was he holding it here now, then he noticed the second pouch clamped shut with a plain steel popper button that had been stamped with his design of imperial double-headed eagle, popping it open he found another note.

"yeah me again" he read "I swapped this for you knowledge of invisibility cloaks and I rethought that kirk thing you cheeky devil he died 2371 well into the next generation so I have accelerated a few of your projects instead and have capped your knowledge to 2293 federation" scrawled at the bottom of the note was a PTO he turned the paper over "P.S I have given you a few ship blueprints to help you along" there was a winky face emoji artfully done and beneath that he saw a final note at the very bottom of the paper "P.S.S you have company?" that threw him Q already knew that he had a wife so why.

David grabbed the nearest towel put the gun belt on the counter before he died off, he grabbed the belt and walked into the bedroom it was time to face the music, he had been correct earlier she was staring but had yet to wake which gave him time to dress, he found his underwear draped over the tv and his trousers somehow were attached to the chandelier, and he had no idea how he was going to get them down, while contemplating this he heard a sudden squeak followed by a heavy thud as Anastasia woke.

"Good morning Anastasia how are you," he asked trying to be nonchalant but braced himself for the inevitable, the scream which was loud extremely loud and probably in the decibel range of an A380 on take-off, at least that's what it felt like.


	20. Chapter 20

David continued to stare at his trouser as they hung just out of his grasp and began to wonder where he the hell he had put his Busby and his sword, he seemed completely oblivious to his wife's mental breakdown as he walked over to a chair and pulled the wooden piece of furniture until it was underneath the chandelier he then stood onto its padded seat and reached up grabbing the deep grey trousers he pulled gently not wanting to break the expensive looking ornament until he had them in hand.

He jumped down and put them on quickly putting the chair back his eyes on the swinging ornament hoping that it would not fall from the roof, he found his tall boots at opposite ends of the room to the one another the dolman jacket was the easiest thing to find as it was thrown over the desk in a vivid purple heap, his black Hussars Pelise tunic was on the floor at the end of the bed with his undershirt, his sword though was still AWOL.

As he collected his clothes and put them on he turned to his new wife who was still ranting, David put the new belt around his waist clipping the buckle together he straightened his tunic before he decided that she had run mostly out of steam.

"oh no oh no oh no, this is not happening" she stressed as she pacing back and forth at the head of the bed "Tatiana would do this I wouldn't" she said rubbing her temples with one hand and emphatically gesturing with the other "what will I tell the grand duchess, what will I tell father or mother"

"my dear, you must calm down" she turned to David and levelled such a glare that were it possible he would have died then and there

"you" she hissed as she stalked towards him "this is all your fault" David backed up as she advanced "you got me drunk and took advantage of me", oh look she found my sword, David though as he backed into the wall

"I think you will find that it was you who took the advantage," he said not realising that he had just pushed the wrong button with a shriek of feminine rage she unsheathed his sword and swung for the fences making David roll for cover behind the chair he had used earlier "now let's not do anything hasty" he was met with another shriek of rage and a swing this time she embedded the Shashka into the back of the chair David ran for the door as she once again charged at him he just managed to close the door before the blade was driven through the door millimeters away from his face, David breathed out heavily as he took a step back.

"That was close," he said straitening his tunic again "that went better than I thought it would," he noticed something coming from his left-hand side and ducked just as a PPG blast hit the door frame, pulling his pistol he fired a return shot blindly trying to get to cover, he saw two men in black suits and glasses, using his thumb to flick the switch to his pistol from light to heavy stun he fired several blue pulses one hit its target dropping one of his assailants, the second man ran for cover at the end of the corridor and round the corner he seemed to be heading for the elevator.

David jogged down to the corner making sure to keep low as he came to the corner the suited man was gone, David round before going back to the man he had stunned checking his pulse to make sure that the effects of the stun hadn't killed him, he took a breath, before standing the

"that should keep him unconscious for a few hours " David signed again then when to his hotel room door then stopped and placed his head against the door to listen in when it suddenly opened leaving him face to face with his new wife.

"what are you doing," she asked before she saw the unconscious man, to her eyes though he appeared dead "What have you done," she asked edging away

"don't worry he's just unconscious," he said kicking the man in the side, he was met with a piteous groan "see fine", he smiled only to receive a raised eyebrow in response.


	21. Chapter 21

It was perhaps the worst morning of his life capped off with an angry wife and an unconscious man who apparently belonged to EAI but this smelled like Bureau 13 or any of the other secret organisations that Earth Force said didn't exist but were a necessary evil in their eyes, David knew that it was best to get back to Cronus as soon as possible to avoid any more attempts on his life and that of his new wife bit convincing her of that would be a pain.

She stared down at the body for a moment as he moaned piteously confirming that he was indeed alive.

"Very well," she said turning and walking down the corridor her every motion was as fluid and graceful as water, and David couldn't take his eyes off her it was if she command of his eyes because he could not look away.

"Are you coming" she shot over her shoulder without stopping he could tell she was still upset

"first blood" David mumbled remembering Martok's conversation about his wife, he smiled to himself as she turned the corner, it took a second for him to realise that she was gone and he ran to catch up to her, it took him the better part of the journey down to the gaudy lobby to convince her that the attack was not an isolated incident as he had been attacked before and that it was better to be safe than sorry, David didn't even get a second glance from the people there as he was dressed in full hussar uniform with a gun belt and sword attached.

They were met by a valet who smiled at the couple and handed David the Keys to a white classic Lamborghini which surprised Anastasia because the company had gone belly up almost half a century previously thanks to the advent of better power cores that eliminated the internal combustion engine in favour of the battery electoral engine.

David decided that it would be safer to hit up area 52 the facility was in the process of being moved to the moon of Cronus currently called Cardassia, the facility that was being constructed there was complete enough to support life safely the final shutdown of the hidden location would be completed by the end of the month and until then there were ships coming and going taking sensitive equipment and material to his solar system.

The drive was short given the updates David had made to the engine in the car and they arrived in time to miss the Transport that David had wanted to catch hitch was an armed transport with experimental weapons systems and devices on it and was guarded by some of his best security forces and would be a hell of a lot safer than on just a regular transport, and he wanted the extra security because for some reason since the attack he had been feeling exposed uncomfortably so and wanted it rectified as soon as humanly possible.

But the next transport didn't have a window for leave for another two hours and David wanted off earth faster than that.

The Couple sat in a large but Spartan office as a middle-aged man of Middle Eastern decent rambled animatedly about some of the technology that they had been developing, Anastasia looked at him with pleading eyes she begged him to do something to stop the man from speaking

"Director Robins," David said Getting the rambling man's attention, he was going into great technical detail on the new impulse systems and how they had married so well with them that they had revolutionised the sub-light speed threshold and David had just about enough "I am well acquainted with the systems after all I did design them"

"Of course sir I got carried away"

"Perfectly understandable Alistair," David said smiling to the man "But I am in need of transport"

"The next one isn't scheduled until" he took a moment to check the computer "14:00 just over two hours from now"

"Is there no way you could arrange another maybe an hour from now," asked David

"I'm sorry sir but we have no transports until two o'clock," he said regretfully the trio sat in silence for a moment then Alistair snapped his fingers "the Kabuto can be prepped for launch in an hour"

"And the prototype power core has the instability been corrected"

"Yes sir it's been fully stabilised"

"Before that can, we get some clothes," asked Anastasia

"I'm afraid that the only clothes we have are the uniforms from the shock battalions of the first order"

"That will do very well Alistair can you have two brought up so we can change," said David cutting off Anastasia before she could ask anything.

"Right away sir".

The uniforms were black with white piping on the chest pockets of the tunic as well as collar and cuff piping as well, on the left sleeve of the tunic was a blue patch with a thick white outline, the badge had a skull and crossbones between two swords and below that was a white grenadier grenade written above the skull was the word Shock trooper, beneath the badge was red and black chevron that also showed that the uniform belonged to a shock trooper the two were usually only paired on the GROPO variant of the uniform, there were golden epilates on the shoulders that were piped crimson and had three stars and an imperial crown at the top of them underneath was the De Cyrillic equivalent of the capital D, the bloomers were also black with white piping and were tucked into a pair of Sapogi.

David held the red and black visored cap in his hands for a moment and gently rubbed the visor before holding it up and looking into the purple and black cockade that was designed to mirror the Russian imperial cockade of world war one, and as it was the officer variation it had bands of Gold that were thicker than those of colour, the black band of the hat had white piping and the crown of the hat was a rich vibrant red with white piping around its edge and a white knotted cord.

David sighed and made his way out and towards the hanger that the Kabuto was waiting, it was a modified Hideki-class attack ship that had been made as a hybrid of Earth Alliance and Cardassian technology, it wasn't as efficient as the true blood Cardassian design but it worked as a prototype before mass production and it worked well enough that it was space worthy and had been hyperspace certified though it possessed no Hyperspace Projector it could use the gates like any other ship.

The ship all 86 meters of her had a dull grey look to her hull instead of the vibrant orange-brown of her original counterpart because the manufacturing of large quantities Kelindide was currently cost prohibitive and while there where large quantities of Durainium that where accessible he had no way of refining it yet, so he stuck with plain old Titanium that had been refined by the Clark Corporation to his Specifications and then irradiated to toughen it even more.

David walked to the ship and was still just astounded at its size, it easily dwarfed an Airbus A380 in length and was just as tall, it had two decks and accommodation for thirty men but only needed a minimum of three people to run it well, when he watched the show it never registered as it always looked so small when compared to the hero ships it was tiny, it's sat on its landing struts that were holding the vessel two meters above the ground with its freight lift down waiting for use.

He sighed this ship had been a labour of love and his first experimentation with using the Replicators like industrial printers, the Dominion had first exposed the technology to the Cardassians during the war, they also exposed them to the idea of flat-pack ship building, and with the two systems combined made it so that the ship construction could be achieved at a fraction of a fraction of its normal pace, thus allowing the Dominion to build ships at an accelerated pace. This was the first time David had been present for the construction of a ship and had watched through a direct line in the rock as everything came together was both humbling and thrilling.

A cough interrupted his train of thought.

"I am impressed" it was Anastasia

"thank you, she was an interesting build"

"like almost like a Vree ship"

"it's the first of my system patrol cruisers that I have designed "

"it doesn't seem like something Earth Force would commission something like this"

"they didn't"

"oh"

"I've got to run through some checks on the ship before we take off"

"why"

"there's an experimental power core that is powering the drive systems and I want to give it a look over before we take off"

"what's so experimental about it?" she asked

"it's an artificial singularity generator" she quirked a brow in confusion

"it creates and draws power from a black hole that it creates using tunnelling particles into subspace" he smiled at her confusion and held out his hand she accepted it and they both walked to the elevator arm in arm


	22. Chapter 22

David lead his wife to the waiting lift and engaged it, lifting the two of them into the empty cargo hold, the hold was a cavernous two stories tall as was standard with Cardassian ships they had room enough for three platoons to bunk there comfortably, they made it to a turbo lift and as the doors closed David said

"Main Engineering" the lift jerked slightly before starting off and David pulled a notepad out of his pocket and a pencil and began taking notes "Adjust Hydraulic locks," he said as he wrote Anastasia gave him a look that he didn't notice and let him continue taking notes for now.

The lift stopped with a jerk and the doors hissed open David again Jotted down more notes

"Engineering doors sticking and lift locks slow to engage" he let his wife leave the lift first taking some note on how she reacted.

"it's smaller than I expected," she said looking round the room, David smiled

"in comparison to the standard EA ships that's understandable but this is what we're here to check" David indicated to the large doors at the back of the room, as they approached the doors opened they were heavy and thick and once they were opened they revealed a two story open space with a catwalk leading to a large device, it was spherical and had a tower through it leading to the top of the room and another at the bottom "this houses the artificial singularity that powers the ship"

"is it safe"

"very" he smiled "this uses Q40 to tunnel into subspace and draw power from it"

It was all over Anastasia's head as David explained how it worked and how the safety features made a core breach almost impossible as he went over the computer readouts and displays with a fine tooth comb then he smiled stopping going through the database and the technical readouts and charts.

"everything looks good here"

"where to next," Anastasia asked

"command bridge" David answered holding out a hand, Anastasia took the hand offered after a moment's hesitation and they walked together to the turbo lift and Anastasia could not help but ask

"why do you need a lift if you only have four decks"

"Each deck is isolated apart from a Jefferies tube and a turbo lift shaft," David said as the Lift doors opened "it makes it harder for a decompression to affect the ship if it's confined to just one deck it can be isolated and controlled, it also helps in case of fire and boarding actions" he said as the doors opened to reveal the CNC.

The CNC was traditional Cardassian design as David never got around to changing it, the door was elevated with a catwalk that lead to the throne-like chair in the centre of the room that dominated it, the command chair loomed over the available space leaving nothing out of view of the Commander.

David walked down the steps and to the horse show console in direct line of sight of the command throne, his fingers began to dance over the flat console small beeps signalling te contact his fingers made with the warm coloured buttons, he then moved to the second half of the connected horseshoe consoles, again his fingers danced and he read the readouts checking the colourful graphs and data links making sure that the ship was in full working order.

"well everything checks out," David said to himself "gotta keep an eye on the structural integrity fields while in hyperspace though don't want to come apart in there" he turned to speak to Anastasia when he noticed she hadn't followed him down she was, in fact, making herself at home on the command throne.

"this is really comfortable," she said when she noticed him staring at her she pulled her feet up on it

"it should be" David smiled "if the commander is uncomfortable in his own chair his crew usually feel his wrath"

"why is it up here"

"I had meant to change its location and the whole orientation of the command bridge but I had too many projects that needed direct intervention with to spend time on Star Ship architecture"

"you don't have any straps" she said looking over her shoulders

"No I have Gravity"

"really I've never been on a ship with Gravity before"

"well there's a first time for everything" David smiled as he made his way up to her

"we're ready to go"

"why are you in such a rush"

"besides the two-man team that was coming to attack us and were armed with government issued PPG's"

"but we should be safe here"

"no, this facility is being shut down and moved to a new location because of safety concerns"

"oh," she said "so where are we going"

"we are gong to my home where we will be safe"

"will I be able to call my parents"

"yes as soon as we arrive at my home we can"

"thank you"

After a few minutes of waiting for the window for the departure of earth opened and the ship took off and made its way to the departure point everything went smoothly as the ship sailed out of the atmosphere with no issues and as they passed Luna they accelerated to warp 0.1 to get to Jupiter within a few minutes.

"what the hell was that!" shrieked Anastasia David looked up from his position as the horseshoe

"that was warp speed, my dear," he said turning back with a smile to check how the sudden acceleration had affected the ship's structural integrity

"what?" she asked

"warp speed it's an experimental FTL drive for real space," he said turning back to look up at her "don't worry its perfectly safe and cut down the time to get to the gate by a hell of allot"

"why?" she asked

"last time I took a ship out for a sojourn I was attacked by pirates"

"so that's why you felt the need to go to ridiculous speeds to get here"

"don't be silly" he smiled "that would mean going to plaid"

"what?" she asked flatly

"nothing"

He smiled to himself before the gate came to life opening an amber coloured portal for them to enter, David took the ship in and in a flash of white light they where in Hyperspace


	23. Chapter 23

After the second day travelling by hyperspace and when he was finally convinced that they were safe enough that they could David allowed Anastasia to call her family who was immensely surprised that she was not in fact on holiday in Moscow with her friends as she had told them but had been in America and married to a man during a drunken tryst and was now on the way to his home on another planet, to say harsh words were exchanged was an understatement and someone called the Grand Duchess was also displeased and stated that she and the family would be on the next transport to Cronos.

While on their journey David and Anastasia began to truly get to know one another and they found out that they did have similar interests in pop culture and sports, they talked about their time as children, David as the son of a CEO and nephew of a Senator and Anastasia as the granddaughter of the Grand Duchess of Holy Russia in a Russian state that had abandoned the monarchy how she was always a target for bullies and how through gymnastics skills she had earned a place in the Lomonosov State University of Moscow.

They exited Hyperspace at the desired coordinates and were met by the moon rise behind the planet of Cronos.

"Beautiful isn't it"

"Where is your home?" asked Anastasia

"it's a humble little thing just off from the main spaceport"

"Ok good so we should be on the ground soon"

"Yes"

"Thank God"

"Not enjoying the journey?"

"Not really no the only good thing about this escapade is that it delays the wrath of my grandmother for a while"

"That bad huh"

"she is a fire breathing dragon"

"ok then," David said as his hands danced over the controls "I'll take us down"

As the ship passed the space dock under construction and into the atmosphere, the ship bumped slightly for a moment as it hit hard air and then flew easily, they passed over the spaceport and the small city of prefabs and buildings under construction, then she saw it the building that they were headed towards.

"is that"

"that's my place yes"

"it's Gigantic!" she shouted as the ship came to a stop and slowly lowered to land with a little jerk as the ship's skids hit the ground, David then shut down the systems and stood up, seeing a large contingent of men dressed in dress uniform half in traditional Russian Preobrajensky uniform the other in the black and purple of David's Guard uniform, at their head was the smiling face of a smug Louis Dubois dressed in full uniform and David could feel the smug bugger laughing on the inside as the two left the ship and they made their way to the contingent.

Louis opened his mouth when

"Shut up," said David, as the formation stood at attention arms presented

"Had fun then did we?" he asked feigning innocence as the married couple walked through the gap between the greeting party

"I will shoot you," David said as the two entered the palace followed by Louis and the guards.


	24. Chapter 24

David had spent the better part of three hours with chemists and various doctors going over chemical formulas and concoctions that would revolutionise the field if he could get past the various walls and blocks designed to get rid of any Charlton's and placebo peddlers that sought to defraud the system and the government, but that was only part of the reason he was at his largest medical research facility in truth he was headed to the geneticists department for something so secretive that he hadn't even told his friend Louis, it was perhaps the dark nature of what he was doing that made that so easy for him to do, because he believed with every fiber of his being that should Louis or anyone else know what he was doing he would be hung from the tallest pole, and he believed they would be such just in doing so.

This was his black project his point of no return project, once this was unleashed he would be forever held in the same breath as the Death Walker, as Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini the same as Coronal Green and Kahn this would be forever a black mark on his name and no matter the good he did the lives he saved he would be a monster a nightmare peddler the likes of which would mark him out as one of the history's greatest villains this would be his fate.

The door was a two-foot thick blast door that would be impossible to cut through in any amount of time and the security measures would make even a founder green with envy but they were all necessary this black sight would never be revealed like Area 51 the truth only revealed after centuries of conjecture and speculation.

David stood on the slightly raised platform and held his arms out wide allowing the machine to scan every molecule of his body, then voice recognition, retinal scan and finally a full blood screening that was to get through the first door, the next was a secure obscure Klingon cypher from the days before the first Emperor that would get him through the second door imitate closing the first tight behind him, and finally a Cardassian coded system that was so intricate that even Enabran Tain's head would spin with a number of ciphers and code phrases needed.

From there he entered a corridor with robotic VI turrets that fired Klingon Disruptor bolts set to full disintegration but without the humane coded patch that he added to the microprocessors to speed up the disintegration these would take several agonising seconds to pull a being apart molecule by molecule and they would feel every microsecond of it.

As he passed the final doors a full decontamination procedure began after which David had to change into a hazmat/vacuum style suit before he could enter the room, there was no atmosphere in the room and anyone that dared to get this far would be crushed by the gravity plating spooling up to ten thousand times Earth gravity in two points eight seconds all this to keep people out and to keep his project inside as the defences worked both ways, because what he was doing was illegal in every civilised place in the galaxy, not even the Dilgar had sunk this low even at the end.

As he walked he called

"Computer activate Project Medical Specialist" there was a shimmer of light before a single Cardassian male stood before him

"Mr Clark," he said holding out his hand "welcome back"

"Doctor Moset" he greated shaking the had presented firmly "how goes project space seed"


End file.
